religious language 20th century

Question 1

Moritz Schlick

Answer 1

Philosopher who the Vienna Circle gathered around.

Question 2

A.J. Ayer and Anthony Flew inspired by…

Answer 2

the logical positivists

Question 3

Verificationism

Answer 3

• Ayer’s theory
• Language can only be meaningful if it is cognitive, analytical, or verifiable.

Question 4

Ayer’s first verification principle

Answer 4

1. Practical verifiability (strong)
2. Verifiability in principle (weak)

Question 5

Ayer’s later verification principle

Answer 5

1. Direct verification
2. Indirect verification

Question 6

Comte and Mill

Answer 6

Support verificationism as it fits in with a scientific understanding of reality. The immense success and power of science means that it is our only valid source of knowledge.

Question 7

Swinburne verificationism

Answer 7

Statements can be meaningful without being verifiable. For example, toys in a cupboard coming alive at night when no one is looking is meaningful because it can be understood.

Question 8

Brummer verificationism

Answer 8

Verificationism treats sentences of faith as if they are scientific statements and to do this commits an error of understanding.

Question 9

Hick verificationism

Answer 9

If we accept a statement must be verifiable in order for it to be meaningful it doesn’t devoid religious statements of meaning. For example, life after death may offer a sense of experience and empirical evidence to be able to verify religious statements.

Question 10

Falsification

Answer 10

• Karl Popper’s theory
• A statement is only meaningful if we know how to prove it as false.

Question 11

The parable of the gardener

Answer 11

• Shows how falsification can work.
• Where there’s an invisible gardener that comes and tends to this area every day but you can’t prove or disprove it so it’s meaningless.

Question 12

St Paul falsification

Answer 12

Religious belies are falsifiable as if someone found Jesus’ body it could prove that he didn’t actually rise from the dead.

Question 13

Mitchell falsification

Answer 13

Religious belief is based upon the rational weighing of evidence so that religious language is cognitively meaningful. Most religious people have evidence for God in the form of their relationship with God.

Question 14

Swinburne falsification

Answer 14

If we understand the words in a sentence then they are meaningful to us. For example, we know what toys are and what it would mean for them to come alive at night when no one is watching.

Question 15

Hare falsification

Answer 15

Religious language isn’t an attempt to describe reality but instead a non-cognitive expression of a persons Blik.

Question 16

Wittgenstein illness example

Answer 16

Language games could explain how people have two different truths about the same thing. For example, if 2 people are ill one person could see it as them being punished whilst the other doesn’t think of it as a punishment at all.

Question 17

Aquinas

Answer 17

Wrote 5 cognitive proofs on God’s existence and even if they lack empirical evidence Aquinas clearly believed that his view was cognitive.

Question 18

Swinburne and Polkinghorne

Answer 18

Science can not explain how the world is so fine-tuned for human existence. God is a better explanation for this.

Question 19

Ayer language games

Answer 19

• Wittgensteinian fideism
• If each language game has it’s own reality then we should accept talk about things like fires and witches to be cognitive.

Question 20

Nielsen

Answer 20

Ideas about reality and reason are ambiguous as they can only be given within there given discourse.

Question 21

Falsification paragraph 1- meaningless God

Answer 21

1. Is good because if religious beliefs about God are meaningless as it can’t be proved.
2. However, St Paul argues that religious beliefs are falsifiable. For example, if someone found Jesus’ body it could be proved wrong.

Question 22

Falsification paragraph 2- perfect test

Answer 22

1. Persuasive as is a perfect test of whether someone believes about reality as if it was rational they would be able to prove it.
2. However, Mitchell argues that religious belief is based on rational weighing of evidence. For example, someone’s relationship with God could be evidence. Use parable of stranger.
3. However, this is unpersuasive as we can’t just count a religious person’s experience with God as solid evidence.

Question 23

Falsification paragraph 3- science

Answer 23

1. Follows science that there must be factual truth about a statement for it to be meaningful.
2. However, Swinburne argues that if we understand something then it is meaningful.
3. Furthermore, scientists don’t always know how to verify certain things but it doesn’t make it meaningless.
4. However, meaning and understanding aren’t the same thing.

Question 24

Falsification paragraph 4 - logical

Answer 24

1. Persuasive as seems logical to deem something meaningless unless we can test and all agree on it.
2. However, Hare argued that religious language is instead just an expression of a persons Blik. Shown in parable of lunatic.
3. However, this argument fails as when a religious person says ‘God exists’ they mean it factually.

Question 25

Parable of the lunatic

Question 26

Parable of the stranger

Question 27

Language games paragraph 1- contradictory position

Answer 27

1. Good as explains how people can have two different truths about the same thing.
2. For example, illness could be seen as a punishment or not a punishment.
3. However, it could result in a contradictory position as to say God is a reality in a theists game but a non-reality in a atheists game doesn’t make sense.

Question 28

Language games paragraph 2- difference

Answer 28

1. Persuasive as explains difference between religious and science in a meaningful way.
2. However, unpersuasive for religious people as when they say ‘God exists’ they do mean it in a scientific sense.
3. Furthermore, Aquinas wrote 5 proofs on the existence of God based on observation of the universe.

Question 29

Fideism

Answer 29

The view the faith alone can gain knowledge of God.

Question 30

Language games paragraph 3- realistic

Answer 30

1. Persuasive as seem to accurately capture the way that social life works.
2. However, this can’t explain how people convert to a religion if they are not part of that language game.

Question 31

Weak verification paragraph

Answer 31

1. Weak verification opens argument for God’s existence as the teleological argument attempts to prove God’s existence through experience.
2. However, Ayer overcomes this with his later version of the verification principle.

Question 32

Verification paragraph 1- Hick

Answer 32

1. Hick argues that if we claim a statement must be verifiable for it to be meaningful it doesn’t make religious statements meaningless. Life after death could be empirical evidence.
2. However, this argument fails as life after death isn’t empirically verifiable as we may not have the same senses we have now.