20th century perspectives Flashcards
What is a cognitive statement ?
Statements about God that can be known as either true or false
What are Non-cognative statements ?
Statements that are not subject to truth or falsity
What is logical positivism ?
A movement in philosophy that believed that the aim of philosophers should be to analyse language, particularly the language of science
What is the verification principle ?
The belief that statements are only meaningful if they can be verified by senses.
There are strong and weak forms of the principle associated with the Vienna circle
What are metaphysics ?
The branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of reality, literally things beyond or after this physical realm
AJ Ayer accepted the basic idea of the verification principle, but what did he say about moral statements ?
For a statement to be meaningful, it must be either a tautology or something that is verifiable in principle
What Is Tautology ?
A phrase where the same thing is said twice in different words, hence is true by definition alone
How does Hick argue with Ayer’s rejection of religious statements ?
He argues religious statements are meaningful eschatologically, and will be verified at the end of time.
What is the falsification symposium ?
The principle that a statement is a genuine scientific assertion if it is possible to say how it could be disproved empirically
What does Karl popper argue ?
That when scientists make a claim, they are merely inviting others to test their hypothesis to see if it can be disproved
What is a blik ?
A basic unfalsifiable belief
