nature of belief

Question 1

In which work does Ayer outline the verification principle (VP)

Answer 1

Language Truth and Logic

Question 2

Under Ayer’s verification principle (VP) what makes a sentence meaningful

Answer 2

-if it is either tautology or if it verifiable empirically

Question 3

What is tautology

Answer 3

something which is true by definition

Question 4

What was Ayer’s verification principle (VP) inspired by

Answer 4

Hume’s fork- stated that meaningful language was either a priori analytic or a posteriori synthetic

Question 5

Give two examples of statements which would be meaningful under the VP and why

Answer 5

• ‘it snowed on xmas day in 2000’ as it could be verified by observations in London on that day
• ‘there is life on neptune’ although it can’t be verified right now it in principle possible to verify it

Question 6

Why are all statements about God meaningless under the VP according to Ayer

Answer 6

you can’t verify it- statements about a transcendent being are all non-verifiable

Question 7

Criticisms of the verification principle

Answer 7

• verification principle itself fails to be meaningful as it isn’t tautology and can’t be verified empirically
• limiting realm of speech to very specific list of statements (Sutherland)

Question 8

Who came up with the falsification principle

Answer 8

Anthony Flew

Question 9

What is the falsification principle based on

Answer 9

based on science- everything works probabilistically

Question 10

What’s the difference between the falsification and the verification principle

Answer 10

Flew agreed with Ayer that propositions are only meaningful if they are factually significant
BUT its the possibility of falsification rather than verification that makes it meaningful

Question 11

What statements are meaningful according to flew

Answer 11

Statements which are unfalsifiable (can’t be proven false)

Question 12

What is the Garden Parable

Answer 12

two people arrive at a run down garden person x believes that a gardener is looking after it but person y believes there is no one tending it
look at the garden for several days but x holds onto belief that there is a gardener- coming to conclusion that the gardener is invisible, untangable and odourless

Question 13

What does the garden parable demonstrate

Answer 13

not enough for a statement to be verifiable as even though there is no evidence x holds onto the view that there is a gardener- continues to modify view so it can be falsified
the fact that it is unfalsifiable is what makes it meaningless- same principle can be used for God and religious belief

Question 14

How do theists qualify the suffering God puts us through even though ‘God loves us like a father loves his children’

Answer 14

say that God’s love is mysterious

Question 15

Why is religious belief therefore meaningless to Flew under FP

Answer 15

if theists eventually believe suffering proves God doesn’t love us then also have to give up belief as no loving God exists and if they don’t its unfalsifiable to meaningless anyway

Question 16

Parable of resistance leader (Mitchell)

Answer 16

see leader whom we trust doing things that appear to be in collaboration with the enemy- causes followers to question faith in leader
some people are going to give up belief in leader and some people won’t

Question 17

What does the parable of the resistance leader show

Answer 17

Flew is wrong to think that people blindly cling onto beliefs and don’t question it- people do question and wrestle with faith and many people do in fact give up the belief
religious people have faith despite the serious doubts they have

Question 18

Who came up with term ‘bliks’ and in which book

Answer 18

R.M Hare- ‘Theology and Falsification: A Symposium’

Question 19

What are bliks

Answer 19

unfalsifiable but meaningful ideas and statements

Question 20

Which parable does Hare use to illustrate bliks

Answer 20

Parable of the paranoid student

Question 21

How does Hare undermine Flew’s falsification principle using bliks and parable of paranoid student

Answer 21

shows that things that are unfalsifiable can also be meaningful
it has a profound impact on how the student approaches the world- how he forms other beliefs and how he lives his life (operates so centrally in his belief system that it can’t be falsified)
We all have fundamental beliefs on which we base our actions on and which we will never give up

Question 22

In which book does Clifford discuss Evidentialism

Answer 22

‘Ethics and Beliefs’

Question 23

What does Clifford say about meaningful statements

Answer 23

we have a moral obligation to believe that or which we have sufficient evidence even for the most trivial of matters- tolerating beliefs without evidence will damage society

Question 24

According to Clifford when are we entitled to believe something without evidence

Answer 24

iff it is self-evident 
e.g turning up to a party and announcing 'I'm here' 
incorrigible
e.g pain inleg
based on sense data

Question 25

Why should religious belief be disregarded according to Evdentialism

Answer 25

God isn’t observanble

Question 26

Plantinga’s criticism of evidentialism

Answer 26

evidentialists unduly limit the definition of basic belief
fails it’s own criterion
all sorts of beliefs which we take for granted but aren’t immediately obvious to us (the belief that I am having thoughts right now)

Question 27

Other critiques of evidentialism

Answer 27

basic beliefs must be the product of a properly functioning mind in an appropriate environment

Question 28

Why is reason a barrier to faith according to Kierkegaard

Answer 28

• it is an epistemological tool which is unfit for its object- can only know God through revelation
• not everything yields to rationalism

Question 29

What does Fear and Trembling show

Answer 29

shows how evasive the nature of belief is for philosophers and how dismissive some philosophers have been of religious faith (won’t yield to linear prosaic interpretation

Question 30

why does faith in God require a leap of faith

Answer 30

as you can never prove you are right; you just have to hope you are right and spend a life time going deeper into faith

Question 31

What is fundamentally diffeent about the statements ‘Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603’ and ‘Abraham demonstrated his faith by sacrificing is son’

Answer 31

The first requires evidence as it is a fact about the world (would be right to use verification or falsification princple here)
the second is not trying to make a factual statement about the world- you have wrestle with it with ‘fear and trembling’- its not a yes or no statement

Question 32

Explain Pascal’s wager

Answer 32

Either we chose to believe in God or we don’t
each belief has consequences and we can weigh up the consequences to decide which one would bring us the most happiness
- If you don’t believe in God and he doesn’t actualy exist then you’ve gained a few sundays BUT if he does exist then you’re left with eternal damnation
- If you do believe in God he doesn’t actually exist you’ve lost a few sundays BUT if he does exist then you’ll have eternal life

Question 33

What’s the problem with Pascal’s wager

Answer 33

Makes it seems as though God is like a life insurance policy- encouraged to develop our faith because of the rewards it will bring us