religious language 2 Flashcards
three principles of the enlightenment
- reason
- the scientific principle
- progress
The two “prongs” of Humes Fork
Matters of Fact
Relations of Ideas
what are “matters of fact”
things that can be proven true based on evidence (later known as verification principle)
examples of matters of fact
the Eiffel tower is in Paris
it is raining
what type of knowledge are matters of fact based on
apriori knowledge
what are “relations of ideas”
things which are true by definition or the way we use words
examples of relations of ideas
bachelors are unmarried men
2+2=4
what type of knowledge is relations of ideas
priori knowledge
what is logical positivism
the idea that the only meaningful philosophical problems are those that can be solved with knowledge that can be proven true
Ludwig Wittgenstein 2 quotes on language
“the world is all that is the case”
“whereof we cannot speak. thereof we must remain silent”
who created logical positivism and when
the Vienna Circle in 1920s and 30s
language is cognitive if it
conveys information
most cognitive language is…
synthetic
Synthetic meaning
it can be shown to be true or false by evidence
ludwig wittgenstein said…
“the world is all that is the case”
what does “the world is all that is the case” mean
language only has a meaning if it refers to physical things
cognitive statements can be true or false and…
can be shown to be true or false
non cognitive language…
does not deal with facts
forms of non cognitive language
emotion, giving orders
non cognitive statements may be relative to facts but
they are not dependent on the facts to be true
theists would argue that religious statements are…
cognitive as they intend to tell us fact
the verification principle challenges…
the status of religious language as cognitive
verification principle was originally presented by
moritz schlick
moritz schlick said
the meaning of a statement was its method of verification
for example, the meaning of the statement “my front door is black” is…
that if you go to my house and look at my door you will see it as black
Schlick argues that anything that could not be verified is meaningless because
it literally has no verifiable meaning
