1.9 Twentieth Century Perspectives Flashcards
COMPLETED
1
Q
what is a cognitive statement?
A
statements about God can be known to be either true or false
2
Q
what is a non-cognitive statement?
A
statements about God are not subject to truth or falsity
3
Q
what is the verification principle?
A
- the belief that statements are only meaninful if they can be verified by the senses
- Strong forms associated with the Vienna Circle, weak forms associated with A.J. Ayer
4
Q
what is logical positivism?
A
a movement in philosophy that believed that the aim of philosophers should be to analyse language, particularly the language of science
5
Q
what two ideas influenced verificationism?
A
- Empiricism: Hume’s emphasis on a priori knowledge and rejection of metaphysics
- Focus on language: Wittgenstein quotes about language (although misunderstood by verificationists) suggested that focusing on language would provide a way forward for the philosopher
6
Q
what was the Vienna Circle and their main ideas?
A
- a group of philosophers who met in the 1920s and 1930s
- a statement is only meaningful if it is able to be verified by an actual experience
- scientific claims about the world are meaningful but religious and ethical claims are not
- as well as religious and ethical statements this form of the verification principle rules out historical statements, scientific laws and claims about art or beauty
7
Q
what is Ayer’s interpretation of the verification principle?
A
- he accepted the basic idea behind the principle
- but he argued for a statement to be meaningful it has to either be a tautology or could hypotheticlally be verified (verifiable in principle, the part of his idea that separates it from the regular verification principle)
- hypothetically verifiable means we are not required to conclusively prove something by direct observation we merely have to say how it would be possible to verify it
- Ayer’s position is therefore theological non-cognitivism: religious statements express emotive attitudes or ethical exhortations, but they do not have factual content
8
Q
what are the strengths of Ayer’s verification principle?
A
- he widens the principle from the vienna circle and allows historical claims and scientific laws to be seen as meaningful
- some argue that it is right to exclude religious and ethical claims as they are different to other types of statements
- his ‘verifiable in principle’ idea, known as weak verification, seems more sensible than completely ruling out history
9
Q
what are the weaknesses of Ayer’s verification?
A
- there is still a certain degree of agreement in art about what is beautiful and in ethics over what is right suggesting it is not completely meaningless
- as pointed out by Alvin Plantinga in his book “God and other minds” the verification principle fails its own test - to say ‘statements are only meaningful if they are tautologies or verifiable in principle’ is neither a tautology nor verifiable in principle
- Ayer responded to this challenge by saying it is not a statement but a theory but that doesn’t really seem to hold…
10
Q
what was Hick’s response to Ayer?
A
- eschatological verification
- religious statements are meaningful eschatologically
- at the end of all things, it will be possible to verify God’s existence
11
Q
what was the falsification symposium?
A
a series of articles writte in the 1950s which included and responded to Antony Flew’s presentation of falsification
12
Q
what inspired Flew’s falsification?
A
- Karl Popper in the 20th century
- devised the falsification theory as a test for what is science and what is pseudo-science
- if a theory cannot be subject to tests that would show how it could be false then it is not a real scientific theory (like Freud’s Oedipus complex)
13
Q
what is falsification?
A
the principle that a statement is a genuine scientific assertion if it is possible to say how it could be disproved empirically
14
Q
what did Flew argue using falsification?
A
- religious language cannot be falsified and therefore religious statements are not statements at all
- he used the story of the invisble gardener by John Wisdom to conclude that religious claims about the world aren’t really cliams at all as they cannot be tested
- when challenged the believer waters down their claims and shifts the goalposts
- what would have to happen in order for God to be disproved?
15
Q
what is a quote from Flew to show the implausibility of the invisible gardener?
A
how does what you call an invisible, intangible. eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even no gardener at all?
16
Q
what was R.M. Hare’s response to Flew?
A
- the murderous dons
- a lunatic is convinced all the dons want to kill him, no matter who he meets he is convinced they are trying to lull him into a false sense of security
- Hare argues that Flew is wrong to apply scientific criteria to theological language (influenced by Wittgenstein)
- he argued we all have basic beliefs called bliks, some reasonable others not, religious belief is a blik as it cannot be tested
- religious statemetns have meaning to the individual (again, Wittengstein) but this may be inadequate to religious believers who see themselves to be making claims about reality as a whole
17
Q
what was Basil Mitchell’s response to Flew?
A
- the parable of the mysterious resistance fighter
- a man meets a stranger who claims to be the undercover leader of the resistance, despite sometimes questionable actions the man remains firm in his belief that they are on the same side
- Mitchell partly accepts Flew’s point but argues that the believer does not allow the evidence to decisively count against belief as they are committed to faith in God
- Mitchell rejects the idea that religious beliefs are bliks and rather suppots Flew’s idea that religious statements are assertions or claims but unlike Flew sees a genuine role for faith
18
Q
what is Hick’s view on falsification?
A
- prefers verification to falsification
- argues the two are not opposites
- if religious belief is true, it can be verified eschatologically yet if it is false it cannot be shown to be false therefore verification is a better test
19
Q
what is Swinburne’s view on falsification?
A
- also argued verification is better than falsification for religious language
20
Q
what was Wittgenstein’s view on religious language?
A
- many of the problems that philosophers have wrestled with have been caused by a failure to pay attention to language
- the meanings of words are not rigid and fixed, what is more important is how a word is used
- the use of language helps create our perspective of the world
21
Q
what are language games?
A
- language is like playing a game with rules
- in our groups we have agreed rules about how words are used
- religious language is a game
- to suggest that the best explanation of evil is that God doesn’t exist wouldn’t fit within the rules of the game
- religious statements are meaningful to those within the group despite the fact that the statements are not cognitive
22
Q
what are strengths of Wittgenstein’s theory?
A
- he recognises that religious and scientific statements are two different types of things and should be treated differently
- meaning is not fixed but changes with its use and context
- it recognises that there are beliefs that we have that are groundless yet they still shape our world (like Hare’s bliks)
23
Q
what are weaknesses of Wittgenstein’s theory?
A
- a believer might argue that their statements are cognitive and to dumb it down to ‘games’ trivialises the issue
- critics claim Wittgenstein over-analyses language: ‘he takes apart a perfectly working clock and then wonders why it doesn’t work’ [Gellner]
24
Q
how does a non-cognitive approach affect the interpretation of religious texts?
A
- a non-cognitive approach would suggest that ‘Jesus rose from the dead’ is not a historical claim but a way of seeing and understanding the world
- for some Christians this approach is too extreme and weakens key aspects of the religion
- but religious believers do interpret some texts symbolically such as the Genesis accounts
- therefore the key to religious texts is not their literal truth but their function within faith communities
25
Q
what is an alternative view of religious langauge?
A
- narrative and myth
- Hans Frei, 20th century theologian
- highlighted the importance of narrative and myth in religious language
- truths are conveyed behind the narratives and myths of religions
26
Q
Vincent Brummer?
A
- Believes that to treat sentences of faith as scientific sentences is to make an ‘error of understanding’
27
Q
DZ Philips?
A
- Religious language is meaningful for those who actually believe it, and does not need to be verified or justified to those who believe
- Analogical language to describe God is not useful as he is not like anything in the universe
28
Q
Richard Dawkins
A
- R.M. Hare’s ‘Bliks’ are simply brainwashing, religious Bliks only exist as a form of indoctrination (thus are not meaningful)
29
Q
David Hume
A
If a statement does not contain any abstract reasoning (as seen in maths) or any experimental reasoning, then it says nothing at all
30
Q
John Hick
A
eschatological verification
- all can be verified after death and thus religious language is meaningful
- applicable to both atheists and theists
31
Q
Paul Tillich
A
- Religious language is not cognitive but symbolic
- Symbols do not need to be verifiable or falsifiable, they are simply effective in capturing belief or representing faith e.g. the Cross and some people interpret Genesis symbolically
32
Q
CS Evans?
A
- Hare’s Bliks allow for no concept of right and wrong and thus the notion of value becomes meaningless
- if there are no facts supporting religious claims then they are simply expressions of a worldview without ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ values
33
Q
Swinburne
A
- against Flew
- we do not have to be able to specify what would count against a statement in order for it to be meaningful e.g. we can argue against some scientific theories for the universe, but that does not render them meaningless
34
Q
Rudolf Bultmann
A
- Writers of the New Testament were never trying to make a record of historical fact, rather express beliefs through mythological language
- Advocates for ‘demythologising’ the Bible in order for Christianity to become more of a vital part of the modern world
35
Q
Bertrand Russell
A
- Obsession with the meaning of words is similar to ‘someone who takes apart a clock and then wonders why it does not work’
36
Q
Ernest Gellner
A
- Language games are circular:
- Meaning of the word is derived from its language game
- Meaning of the language game is derived from the words which constitute it
37
Q
Patrick Sherry
A
- Many language-game theorists interpret the games too strictly, if Christianity is a language game, the question ‘does god NOT exist?’ is included in this game
- thus, non-believers can also include themselves in this language game
38
Q
Kai Nielson
A
- The notion of language games means that there is no room for criticism from outside the game
- Thus, the religious language game is simply FIDEISM (the idea that knowledge depends on faith or revelation)
