Cheam Religious Language

Question 1

Which theory states that language is only meaningful if it can be verified by empirical evidence or it is a tautology?

Answer 1

Verificationism

Question 2

Is the following an analytic or synthetic statement:

All bachelors are unmarried men

Answer 2

Analytic - because it would be incoherent to deny the truth of the statement. It is true in of itself

Question 3

Which theory states that language is meaningless if there is no way of knowing how to prove it wrong?

Answer 3

Falsification

Question 4

Which philosopher suggested that the meaning of words is determined by Language Game of which the words are part?

Answer 4

Wittgenstein

Question 5

Which approach to language is also known at the Apophatic Way?

Answer 5

The Via Negativa

Question 6

Which philosopher proposes religious language as symbolic?

Answer 6

Tillich

Question 7

Is the following statement analytic or synthetic:

All bachelors are lonely

Answer 7

Synthetic - because there needs to be some sort of test to check the validly of to statement.

Question 8

What can be described as a story that communicates values/beliefs of cultures or societies but are not necessarily factually correct?

Answer 8

Myth

Question 9

Who is the main philosopher linked to verificationism?

Answer 9

Ayer

Question 10

Before weak and strong verification, Ayer suggested two other categories. What are they?

Answer 10

Practical verifiability and verifiability in principle

Question 11

After Ayer rejected his own distinctions of weak and strong verification he suggested two other distinctions. What are they?

Answer 11

Directly and indirectly verifiable.

Question 12

How does John Hick defend religion though verification?

Answer 12

He suggests that God-talk can be ‘eschatologically verifiable.’

Question 13

Who suggested that if a statement is ‘scientific’ it could be potentially falsifiable and therefore meaningful?

Answer 13

Popper

Question 14

Who used the parable of the gardener?

Answer 14

Flew

Question 15

Who did the parable of the garden originally come from?

Answer 15

Wisdom

Question 16

How do Flew and Wisdom’s understanding of their parables differ?

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Who uses the parable of the lunatic and the dons?

Answer 17

Hare

Question 18

Who suggests that original belief is lost through ‘the death of a thousand qualifications’?

Answer 18

Flew

Question 19

What concept of Hare’s means the way in which a person sees the world that is unchanging?

Answer 19

Blik

Question 20

Who uses the parable of the partisan and the stranger?

Answer 20

Mitchell

Question 21

Which two philosophers are linked to the origin of the via Negativa?

Answer 21

Maimonides and Pseudo-Dionysius

Question 22

How is God defined in Tillich’s thinking?

Answer 22

The Ground of Being

Question 23

Is the following an example of univocal or equivocal language:
Cricket

Answer 23

Equivocal - because it could be the insect or the game

Question 24

Is the following and example of univocal or equivocal language:
Female

Answer 24

Univocal - there is only one understanding of the word female

Question 25

Aquinas suggests that we can talk meaningfully about God through analogy. What two categories of analogy does he propose?

Answer 25

Proportion and attribution