Logical Positivism Flashcards
What does cognitive language convey ?
Conveys factual information
What statement does cognitive language give ?
Synthetic statement
How can cognitive language be shown ?
Can be shown to be true or false depending on the empirical evidence
Example of a cognitive statement/language ?
‘House of parliament located in Westminster’
Cognitive language is not empiricism but what ?
It’s a fact, can go and check for yourself
What does non cognitive language convey ?
Non factual information
What does non cognitive language convey ?
Non factual information
What does non cognitive statement convey ?
Emotions, emotion, order and wish and natural claim
An example of a non cognitive language ?
‘I don’t like it when people steal’
What is non cognitive language based on ?
Personal opinion, feelings and cannot be factual
What is logical positivism ?
For statements to be logical it needs to be verifiable as ALL meaningful statements are verifiable
Logical positivism
What are the two ways to verify a meaningful statement?
- Analytical
- Synthetic
Logical positivism
What is analytic ?
- A priori
- true by definition
- Tautology: true by definition
- ‘triangle has three sides’ a definition in a word
Logical positivism
What is a synthetic statement ?
- confirmable by empirical evidence observation
- testable by observation
what is logical positivists see as meaningful ?
Scientific knowledge
What do logical positivists see as meaningless ?
Factual knowledge and metaphysical doctrine
Logical positivism
By stating statements are meaningful analytically and synthetic whah does this do ?
By statement being analytical and synthetic places importance on scientific method
Logical positivism
Epistemic empiricism favouring empiricism over any other knowledge leads to what ?
Leads to a narrow view of what language is meaningful
which philisopher provides an argument for logical positivism ?
A J AYER
What argument does A J Ayer provide for logical positivism ?
Verification principle
Logical positivism
Who was A J Ayer : verification Principle ?
- aethist philosopher: very influential in the 21st century
- was an empiricist, emotivists and logical positivists
- write ‘language, truth and logic’
A J AYER was an emotivist, what is this ?
Believe that all statements are just a personal opinion and expression of feelings
A J Ayer: logical positivists
Developed the verification principle for what ?
For If statements are meaningful or not
Logical positivism
AJ Ayer was a logical positivists, where did this originate from ?
Originated from Vienna circle in the 20th century, which is a group of philosophers who got together to develop philosophy, developing logical positivism later logical empiricism
What is the verification principle by AJ AYER
- two- pronged test that asks you two questions of any statement to determine if its meaningful or meaningless
- must be :
1. Analytical (true by definition)
2. Verifiable (synthetic)
What has to be done for statement to be meaningful in a verification principle by A J Ayer
It needs to be answer one : either must be analytical or synthetic
And if it fails to do so then it is meaningless and is irrelevant and nonsensical
What is a weakness of the verification principle ?
Principle itself cannot be verified