Religious language

Question 1

Logical Positivism

Answer 1

A philosophical approach taken by the Vienna Circle
Claimed that metaphysical and theological language are literally meaningless

Question 3

What so logical positivists claim are two types of meaningful language?

Answer 3

Synthetic- dependant on evidence
Analytic- true by definitions

Question 4

What is Verification PRINCIPLE

Answer 4

The meaning of a statement is its methods of verification
Eg: ‘my car is parked on the road outside’ can be verified by looking outside
It’s sense by experience

Question 5

Who came up with the V principle

Answer 5

AJ AYER

Question 6

What is cognitive language

Answer 6

Language that is shown to be true or false depending upon evidence

Question 7

What is non cognitive language?

Answer 7

Conveys emotions, give orders or make moral claims
Eg; “I am happy”

Question 8

Ayer- a statement is meaningful if only if it ….

Answer 8

Analytic (true by definition)or empirically verifiable

Question 9

VP - application to religious language

Answer 9

AYER argued that statements like “god loves you” cannot be verified either in practice or principle - THERFORE MEANINGLESS

Question 10

Strengths of VP

Answer 10

Focus only on facts.
In line with science and scientific methods
Demands a sense of reality in what we say about the world.

Question 11

Weakness of VP

Answer 11

It rules out a lot of language is meanigless( statements about history and feelings r MEANINGLESS)
Only works when discussing matters fact.

Question 12

Challenges to Ayer VP

Answer 12

Principle itself is not verifiable according to VP

Question 13

Ayer response to the VP not being verifiable

Answer 13

He argues it was a convention statement , hence it does not make a factual claim the fore Cannot be used against itself.

Question 14

What Is falsification?

Answer 14

When making a cognitive claim, you should be able to to try and falsify it
KARL POPPER

Question 15

Summary of PARABLE OF THE GARDENER

Answer 15

2 explores in the jungle. One said there must be a gardener tending to the plot , the other says there is no garder
The explorers pitch their tent , no gardener is seen…….

Anthony Flew gives the following analogy in an attempt to show that reli

Question 16

parable of the gardener in relation to religious language

Answer 16

Gardner is god, believer is theists, sceptic is atheist.
it shows that no empirical tests show that he is present

Question 17

Flews’ thoughts on the POTG

Answer 17

thinks that the gardener’s existence ‘dies the death of a thousand qualifications’ because every time he fails to be detected, the ‘believer’ qualifies what he means by his gardener
- the believer in the parable will allow nothing to falsify his belief that there is a gardener who loves and looks after his garden, would allow nothing to falsify his belief in God

Question 18

What is the falsification principle

Answer 18

A sentence is factually significant if and only if there is some form of evidence which could falsify it.

Question 19

Strengths of the falsification principle

Answer 19

where religion makes important factual claims (e.g. ‘there is a God’, ‘God loves us’)
Flew seems to show that these claims are empty, because all the evidence against such claims is ignored by the believer
they cease to be real assertions, because they die ‘the death of a thousand qualifications’

Question 20

weaknesses of the falsification challenge

Answer 20

It attempts to confine ‘meaningfulness’ to factual propositions, but there is a whole realm of human experience that cannot be confined in this way

Question 21

weaknesses of the falsification challenge – science and religion are different

Answer 21

Falsification principle was concerned mainly with scientific statements
statements about God are metaphysical, not scientific, so it seems inappropiate to demand that they should be empirically falsifiable

Question 22

what is eschatological verification?

Answer 22

Refers to Hick’s view that the ‘facts’ of the Christian religion will be verified (or falsified) after death

Question 23

what is Hick’s response to VP and FP – eschatological verification

Answer 23

The Christian concept of God is verifiable because it is verified eschatologically
Hick is claiming that the ‘facts’ of Christian religion will be verified (or falsified) to you after death
so religious language…

Question 24

Summary of the parable of the celestial city

Answer 24

2 men travelling, only 1 road.
the theists believe there is a celestial city at the end of the road, atheist believe it don’t lead to anywhere.

Question 25

strengths of Hick’s argument

Question 26

weaknesses of Hick’s argument – POV of the parable of the celestial city

Question 27

Who came up with the idea of a Bilk

Answer 27

HARE

Question 28

summary of the parable of the lunatic

Question 29

Flew’s reply to Hare’s view

Question 30

Strengths of Hare’s theory of bliks – explains differences in religions

Question 31

Weaknesses to Hare’s theory of bliks – believers do not see their beliefs as non-cognitive

Question 32

Weaknesses to Hare’s theory of bliks – religious claims are cognitive

Question 33

Wittgenstein’s famous quote + meaning

Question 34

what is language game?

Question 35

Strengths of Wittgenstein’s language games

Answer 35

Avoids confuision

Question 36

strengths of Wittgenstein’s language games

Question 37

strengths of Wittgenstein’s language games – ‘belief in’, ‘belief that’

Question 38

weaknesses of Wittgenstein’s language games – discourages debate

Question 39

strengths of cognitivism

Question 40

strengths of non-cognitivism

Question 41

What does the P of the Celstial city illustrate ?

Answer 41

• ‘god exists’ is not meanigless because it is eschatolgicaly verifable
• if ‘God exists’ is false, then it us unfasifialbe
• But if ‘God exists’ is flase, then it is unfalsifiable