language: 20th century Flashcards
Logical Positivism.
Philosophical school of thought avoiding metaphysics and focused on logical analysis of sentences.
Hegelianism.
All reality is one and forms an ultimate spirituality, the Absolute.
The Verification Principle.
Used to clarify sentences as meaningful or meaningless, claiming they can only be meaningful if they are analytic or synthetic.
Strong Verification Principle.
Requires conclusive empirical evidence.
Weak Verification Principle.
Requires one can state what would be required to gain empirical evidence.
Ayer on meaningless religious language.
“‘There exists a transcendent God’ has no literal significance”.
Foundationalism.
The belief that all knowledge is based on some unarguable, self evident truth.
Vincent Brummer on the modern scientific mindset.
“Many of us intuitivley assume that all thinking is aimed at extending our knowledge.”
Dorothy Emmet on natural theology.
“A sound theology should, I believe, be analogical in character.”
Dorothy Emmet’s argument against logical positivism.
That it misunderstands the intention of theology, taking it to be too literal and scientific.
Richard Swinburne’s example.
Toys dancing.
Richard Swinburne’s argument.
That language can be meaningful in its description even if it is not verifiable.
Objection to Swinburne.
Toys and God cannot be equated.
Objection to logical positivism.
Over-simplification and binary.
Wittgenstein’s language game theory.
That language will chance dependant on its context and one has to understand the meanings and rules of language to participate in particular discourse; one can only participate in a game in which one knows the rules.
Language game theory and religious language.
Religious language is specific to the game of religious discource, one must know the rules and meanings involved in order to be involved in the game of religion otherwise it is completely meaningless.
Expressivism.
Non-cognitivist view that moral or religious statements simply express an attitude and dont correspond to an objective reality.
Theological non-realism.
Belief ‘God’ refers to a spiritual meaning in our lives but not an objective reality.
Who advocates theological non-realism.
Don Cupitt.
D.Z. Phillips on Wittgenstein and Don Cupitt.
Believed that there is an objective reality beyond our language games, and that discussion around God is futile as God cannot be reduced to a form of words.
Criticism of Don Cupitt.
- Has misinterpreted Wittgenstein.
- Not all religious language is used non-cognitivley.
Difference between Wittgenstein and Aquinas. (McCabe).
- Aquinas believd language reflects our ideas; Wittgenstein believed language is the precondition to our ideas.
- Aquinas writes specifically from a religious position; Wittgenstein writes more generally.
What does Bertrand Russell compare Wittgensteinian assumptions to.
An obsessive who takes apart a working clock and then wonders why it does not work.
Criticisms of language game theory.
- Circularity.
- Experience of different ‘games’ is more than just opting for one over the other and being exclusive to it.
- Debate between games occurs, with meaning.
A.J. Ayer on language game theory.
Some things are empirically simply untrue and should be argued against using a different ‘game’/sphere of knowledge.
Falsification.
Theory that a proposition is scientific if one can state the evidence which would prove it false.
Karl Popper’s criticism of the Vienna Circle.
That if all science is about proving theories right then we would make no progress.
Difference between the verification and falsification principle.
Verification is about meaning, falsification is about scientific status.
Who was involved in the ‘University’ debate.
Anthony Flew, Basil Mitchell and R.M. Hare.
Anthony Flew’s criticism of religious language.
That the person making a religious assertion will not allow anything to falsify it, making justifications until they come to an assertion completely seperate from their original.
Blik.
A belief which is life changing but cannot be verified or falsified.
R.M. Hare’s analogy of religious believers.
A madman who believes all univerity dons are trying to kill him despite evidence working against him.
Flew’s criticism of R.M. Hare.
That religious believers believe they are making genuine assertions they believe to be facts about reality.
John Hick’s criticism of R.M. Hare.
No criteria for what makes a right or wrong blik.
Basil Mitchell’s analogy of the partisan and its correlation to religious believers.
That the partisan must believe the stranger for their own sanity, and has reasons and justifications for believing in the stranger.
John Hick on Basil Mitchell’s analogy.
- The stranger knows the truth, thus there is truth.
- When the war ends the truth will come to light.
Eschatological verification.
Believers with specific afterlife beliefs will be able to verify those beliefs when they die.
