Cheam Religious Language Flashcards
Which theory states that language is only meaningful if it can be verified by empirical evidence or it is a tautology?
Verificationism
Is the following an analytic or synthetic statement:
All bachelors are unmarried men
Analytic - because it would be incoherent to deny the truth of the statement. It is true in of itself
Which theory states that language is meaningless if there is no way of knowing how to prove it wrong?
Falsification
Which philosopher suggested that the meaning of words is determined by Language Game of which the words are part?
Wittgenstein
Which approach to language is also known at the Apophatic Way?
The Via Negativa
Which philosopher proposes religious language as symbolic?
Tillich
Is the following statement analytic or synthetic:
All bachelors are lonely
Synthetic - because there needs to be some sort of test to check the validly of to statement.
What can be described as a story that communicates values/beliefs of cultures or societies but are not necessarily factually correct?
Myth
Who is the main philosopher linked to verificationism?
Ayer
Before weak and strong verification, Ayer suggested two other categories. What are they?
Practical verifiability and verifiability in principle
After Ayer rejected his own distinctions of weak and strong verification he suggested two other distinctions. What are they?
Directly and indirectly verifiable.
How does John Hick defend religion though verification?
He suggests that God-talk can be ‘eschatologically verifiable.’
Who suggested that if a statement is ‘scientific’ it could be potentially falsifiable and therefore meaningful?
Popper
Who used the parable of the gardener?
Flew
Who did the parable of the garden originally come from?
Wisdom
How do Flew and Wisdom’s understanding of their parables differ?
Flew believes that the parable demonstrates that religious believers refuse to let their beliefs be falsified whereas Wisdom believes that the parable shows that, just as we cannot verify the existence of a gardener, the existence/nature of God is outside our methods of scientific enquiry.
Who uses the parable of the lunatic and the dons?
Hare
Who suggests that original belief is lost through ‘the death of a thousand qualifications’?
Flew
What concept of Hare’s means the way in which a person sees the world that is unchanging?
Blik
Who uses the parable of the partisan and the stranger?
Mitchell
Which two philosophers are linked to the origin of the via Negativa?
Maimonides and Pseudo-Dionysius
How is God defined in Tillich’s thinking?
The Ground of Being
Is the following an example of univocal or equivocal language:
Cricket
Equivocal - because it could be the insect or the game
Is the following and example of univocal or equivocal language:
Female
Univocal - there is only one understanding of the word female
Aquinas suggests that we can talk meaningfully about God through analogy. What two categories of analogy does he propose?
Proportion and attribution
