Religious Language 20th Century Flashcards
1
Q
Logical positivism
A
- Questions about whether religious language has any meaning - moved away from God moving to empirical evidence
- if religious language is to be meaningful, it must be tested again 5 senses
- philosophical discussion often identifies two ways in which a word/phrase might mean something. (Denotation&Connotation)
2
Q
Keyword: Denotation
A
When the word stands for something, as a label for it can be taken at face value
3
Q
Keyword: connotation
A
This is when the world carries other associations with it.
4
Q
Keyword: cognitive
A
Facts that can be known
5
Q
Keyword: Non-cognitive
A
Cannot be determined to be ‘true’ of ‘false’ has a different function
6
Q
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889)
A
- Born in Vienna (links to the Vienna circle)
- Tractatus Logico-philosophicus (a track of logical philosophy) = his book
- sought to establish the limits of human knowledge and imagination
- He said people should only talk about what they can conceptualise
- ”Where of one cannot speak, there of one must remain silent”
- ‘Lebensform’ or ‘form of life’- denotes how context impact language
7
Q
Vienna circle
A
- A group of philosophers who met after world war 1 at university of Vienna through the 1920’s
- Wittgenstein was not a member of this but followed the debate closely (influenced him)
- Discuss logic, social sciences and philosophy
- followed Comte - believed theological interpretations of events and experiences belonged in the past
- links to “faith is great cop-out excuse”
8
Q
Comte
A
- Argued people thinking passed through various stages over time
- Growing understanding of science led people to abandon old-fashioned thinking for more accurate and sophisticated ideas
- ‘Positivist’ age when the only useful form of evidence for investigation was empirical and could be tested
9
Q
Keyword : Analytic statement
A
A proposition that is true by definition (e.g all bachelors are men)
10
Q
Synthetic Statements
A
: A proposition that is not true by in itself but can be verified emparically
11
Q
A.J Ayer
A
- British philosopher
- In line with Comte & the Vienna circle, he attempted to set down rules by which language can be judged as meaningful or not
- known for his support of logical positivism
12
Q
The verifiability theory
A
- A.J. Ayer’s Verification Principle: Ayer posited that for a statement to be meaningful, it must be verifiable using empirical methods using sci,senses etc. (Essentially judging the meaningfulness of language) - whether it is true or false
- if a statement is neither analytic or synthetic - it tells nothing about reality & it’s meaningless
- David Hume: If a statement does not contain abstract reasoning (like maths) or experimental reason - it says nothing at all
- statements that goes beyond mere definitions have to be verifiable in order to mean anything
- cannot verify that God answers prayers, the lord is my sheperd = cannot prove it
- similarly, e.g. RE cannot be verifiable (can criticse this w flew for re)
- Strength: Verificationism fits with a scientific understanding of reality.
13
Q
alternative apporaches
Wittengestein - Language games
Wittg. thought that Ayer and Flew had misunderstood religious language
A
- likens language to game - must be understood that way
- argues that we cant talk about something meaninfully if we cant accept
- Wittgenstein compared language to a game, emphasising different rules for different games.
- He introduced the concept of “language games,” where language varies by context and purpose, requiring participation of a game with known and accepted rules. he uses chess as an exapmle
- Understanding and accepting language rules means recognising that words have different meanings in different contexts and should be used appropriately.
- ueses the term lebensform - form of life - about immersing yourself of the rules of the game - Religion is its own type of language game – religious language is meaningful within the religious language game to people who are religious – i.e., know (consciously or unconsciously) the ‘rules
- Wittgenstein illustrated this by comparing it to learning to drive a steam train, implying that understanding religious language (RL) requires an insider’s view and cannot be criticised by outsiders, as they don’t know the rules to the game. This focuses on its function rather than the truth of religious claims.
14
Q
supports language games
D.Z. Phillips
A
- D.Z PHILLIPLS RELIGIOUS LANG: IS MEANINGFUL TO those who genuilely uses it - doesnt justfity to those who participate in that language game - could make synpotic link secularisation - dawkins cannot criticse relgious belifs bc he is not part of that relgious language = using science language game against a beleif language game
- Claimed that religious claim is a way of defining the rules of the game of religion
- ‘God is love’ is not a description of an actual existent being, but a way of showing how the word is used to be.
- The language only makes sense within the ‘game’ and for those within it - it has meaning.
15
Q
Anthony Flew & ‘Theology and Falsification’
A
- Article ‘Theology and Falsifaction’ 1955
- Developed by Popper
- Statement between logical positivists - rather than looking supporting it, we count against it (disprove it)
- Falsifiability Principle: Flew suggested a shift from the logical positivists’ verifiability criterion to a falsifiability criterion. He argued that statements should be falsifiable
