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Religious Language Flashcards

1
Q

Via positiva/cataphatic

A

A way of speaking about God that focuses on what God is

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2
Q

Via negativa/apophatic

A

A way of speaking about God using only terms that say what God is not

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3
Q

Agnosticism

A

The view that God cannot be known, we are unable to experience or know about God- God may or may not exist

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4
Q

Univocal language

A

Words that mean the same thing when used in different contexts

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5
Q

Equivocal language

A

Words that mean different things when used in different contexts

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6
Q

Who came up with models and qualifiers?

A

Ian Ramsey- Bishop of Durham

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7
Q

What are models?

A

Familiar qualities we use to speak of God. We understand them in a human sense so use them to speak of what we have discerned about gods nature

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8
Q

What are qualifiers?

A

We quantify the model with the extent of the quality, e.g. God is all loving

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9
Q

Who came up with signs and symbols?

A

Tillich

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10
Q

What are signs?

A

Language or images which represent one chosen thing. it does not matter what the sign is as long as there is an agreed meaning

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11
Q

What are symbols?

A

Language or images which convey meaning which is often shared but is subjective to the individual looking at it

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12
Q

What is tillich’s view of God and how is it different to the abrahamic view of God?

A

Tillich’s view:
* God is being or existence itself. God is life
* Words like omniscience and omnibenevolence only symbollically descrabe our own desire of what we want God to be like
* Forms of worship symbolically reflect our own desires of wanting a relationship with God
* ‘God’ is a notion which symbolically represents our desire for a being who is concerned with and loves us

Abrahamic view:
* God is the creator of all things
* Words like omniscience, omnibenevolence, describe God’s qualities
* God should be worshipped
* God exists

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13
Q

What are the problems with symbolic language?

A
  • symbols can change meaning
  • they can be equivocal
  • can be misused
  • they are interpreted differently
  • influenced by language and culture
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14
Q

What did Hick argue Tillich does?

A

Tillich over emphasises the artistic mature of religion and forgets that religion can have factual elements rather than simply symbols supposed to evoke emotion

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15
Q

Why did Moses Maimonides support Apophatic language?

A
  • God is a transcendent being
  • human reason & language is too limited to grasp the full being of God
  • we should either ‘stay silent’ & not talk about God or only use apophatic language to make statements about what we know God is not
    any positive statements put limits on the true nature of God
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16
Q

Why does Pseudo-Dionysius support apophatic language?

A
  • God is beyond the realms of human understanding and conception. We will never be able to accurately think of God let alone use human lang to describe hime
  • using language is for those ‘less intelligent’ and unable to experience God
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17
Q

Analogy

A

a comparison between one thing and another to provide explanation

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18
Q

What are Aquinas’ two analogies?

A
  1. analogy of attribution
  2. analogy of proportionality
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18
Q

What is Aquinas’ analogy of attribution?

A

where there is a casual (cause-al) relationship between two things

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19
Q

What is Aquinas’ analogy of proportionality?

A

telling us about the proportion of a characteristic
e.g. saying a 6 year old and Usain Bolt are fast runners - fast is being used to compare them against other people like them in a subjective way

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20
Q

Strengths of Via Positiva/Cataphatic language?

A
  • analogies - neither univocal or equivocal - balance
  • Jesus used picturing to describe God when he said the ‘kingdom of God is like…’ - he uses a similie
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21
Q

Weaknesses of Via Positiva/Cataphatic language?

A
  • picturing an aspect of God is interpreted differently by different people
  • to understand analogical words we need to convert them into univocal language first
  • Swinburne - religious analogical statements meanings remain in contact with everyday meanings but they are stretched
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22
Q

Strengths of Via Negativa/Apophatic language?

A
  • any language that is used of God is inevitably pictured by its hearers in human terms - reduces God to human level
  • apophatic way is more respectful in its approach as it recognises that God is transcendent
  • fits with how religious experiences are percieved by those who experience them
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23
Q

Weaknesses of Via Negativa/Apophatic language?

A
  • it is limited in what can be known
  • not a true reflection of how relious believers speak or think about God - the scriptures of all major religions describe God in positive terms
  • means that the believer has no means of communicating with the non-believer about the subject of God
  • could lead to us potentially losing the connection between God and the world
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24
Cognitive language
claims that are attempting to make factual assertions about the world - they might be true or false
25
Non-cognitive language
claims or statements of emotion or feeling that are not trying to make factual assertions about the world - it is not possible that they are either true or false
26
Falsification
a theory of religious language that states in order for a statement to even be meaningful you have to be able to state what evidence might prove it to be false
27
What is the flasification symposium?
* a series of essays about falsification * fist by Flew, then by critics; Hare and Mitchell * each present their own 'parable' or analogy in order to explain their views on religious language
28
Is Popper's view on religious language cognitive or non-cognitive?
cognitive
29
Is Flew's view on religious language cognitive or non-cognitive?
cognitive
30
Is Mitchell's view on religious language cognitive or non-cognitive?
cognitive
31
Is RM Hares view on religious language cognitive or non-cognitive?
non-cognitive
32
Is Hick's view on religious language cognitive or non-cognitive?
cognitive
33
What parable does Flew use to describe his views on religious language being meaningful?
parable of the gardener: theres a garden found by two people; one thinks a gardener looks after it, the other one doesn't - they can't find the gardener
34
What parable does Mitchell use to describe his views on religious language being meaningful?
parable of the stranger stranger tells the partisan that he is part of the resistance - although there is evidence to suggest he isn't, the partisan still believes him because he has chosen to trust the stranger
35
What parable does RM Hare use to describe his views on religious language being meaningful?
parable of the lunatic the lunatic believes all dons want to kill him and his view cannot be changes - he has an insane blik
36
What parable does Hick use to describe his views on religious language being meaningful?
parable of the celestial city two men are travelling down a road, one believes it leads to the celestial city, the other doesn't
37
Give a summary on Popper's view on whether religious language is meaningful
* it is not necessarily meaningless but religious language is not scientific and cannot be put into the same category as science * in order for something to be seen as meaningful congnitively we must be able to propose a test or evidence for a way that would make it false
38
Give a summary on Flew's view on whether religious language is meaningful
* argues that religious beliefs cannot be rationally argued against as believers are making it impossible to debate it
39
Give a summary on Mitchell's view on whether religious language is meaningful
* faith is an interpretation of evidence * interpretations are subjective but not wholy false or without evidence
40
Give a summary on RM Hares view on whether religious language is meaningful
* bliks are beliefs or assumptions that we hold * there are two types: insane and sane * sane bliks = views held by the majority * insane bliks = views held by the minority
41
Give a summary on Hick's view on whether religious language is meaningful
* uses eschatological verification * there is a 'truth' about God to be known, this could be known at the end of time * a belief in God can be falsified as the evidence would be no afterlife
42
What is a synthetic statement?
something proven by experience
43
What does logical positivism argue?
that language and any assertion have to be capable of being empirically tested in order to be considered meaningful statements
43
What is an anylitic statement?
something that can be true by definition
44
What is the verification prinicple?
the principle that synthetic statements must be empirically tested in order to count as meaningful
45
Strong verification
a statement that can be verified if it had empirical evidence that can be perceived at the time of the statement
46
Weak verification
a statement that could be verified if one can give the empirical evidence that could verify it
47
Strengths of logical poitivism
* requires a scientific approach * weak verification means we don't need immediate evidence, just how we might get evidence * uses a-posteriori evidence * universal
48
Weaknesses of logical poitivism
* Anselm would claim that the statement God exists is meaningful as it is an analytic statement * treats all language as if it is scientific * rejects statements of emotion as meaningless * disregards religion
49
What are Brummer's views on verification?
* religious statements are not in the same category as scientific ones * it is inapropriate to scientifically test a poem in the same way its inapropriate to apply the same standard to religion * we don't need to empirically test everything for it to have meaning
50
What are Emmet's views on verification?
* claims of theology should be understood as analogy * faith is not about having a complete explanation, it is an attempt to understand the world we live in
51
What are Swinburne's views on verification?
* logical positivsm misunderstands meaning, its about communicating ideas that could have meanings for others regardless if they are true or false
52
Who came up with language games?
Wittgenstein
53
What are language games?
the idea that in order to understand what is being said we need to know the associated actions or rules
54
What is language organisaed into according to Wittgenstein?
different games or 'spheres of life'
55
What is Cupitt's view on language games non-cognitive?
the language os religion only makes sense within the religious form of life. religious language is not an attempt to make objective statements about the world but rather express a certain attitude or mindset
56
Why is Phillips view of language games cognitive?
argues God exists possibly inside or outside of language games but it is not the task of the philosopher to determine this. religious language does attempt to make objective statements of the world around us. the philosopher must determine the meaning of these statements as an outside observer
57
Strengths of language games
* avoids meaningless debates between religious believers and non-believers over the truth or falsity of religious statements * acknowledges that language serves different purposes * language is not meant to be scientific but instead expresses beliefs, emotions and commitments
58
Weaknesses of language games
* non-believers cannot meaningfully discuss or critique religious beliefs * if each group has its own language game, then different belief systems cannot challenge each others views in a meaningful way * it is difficult to explain how people come to understand and accept religious beliefs when they previously did not

Philosophy (9 decks)

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