religious language II Flashcards
what did Wittgenstein compare language to?
A game
what does lebensform mean?
way of life
an individuals form of life encompasses how they categorise the world and the language they use within it.
How is language like a game?
- words get their meaning by connecting to the world and social reality
- a language game exists when multiple people communicate
- it is a game because it consists of rules
- in each social setting people act differently due to the different internalised set of rules that govern our speech in different situations
- so the meaning of speech is connect to the different games
- unlimited number of games#
- but they all have different rules
did Wittgenstein think language had objective meaning?
No - he believed languages meaning was relative. it is not cognitive and does not hold intrinsic value.
apply language games to God
- religion has its own game
- science also has its own game
- for scientists ( ayer and flew) to analyse religion in the context of science will lead to misunderstanding because they have different meanings
- science is about reality and empricisms, reason
- whereas religious game is about faith and emotion potentially and element of reason
Why can people like Dawkins not speak of God
because he is an atheist and has a different meaning of the word God which makes him illegible to speak on the Christian God since that is a different Game
Explain the meaning of ‘the limit of my language means the limits of my world”
Language is not reflective of reality but formulates our own perceptions. Our words cannot be factual we are limited and cannot portray true human experience using them.
The more we play they better we get.
who were the logical positivists?
all things empirical, language holds no intrinsic meaning. The Vienna circle were a group of LP if in the 1930s
what is the verification principle?
a fundamental the doctrine for LP which demonstrates what constitutes for meaningful language.
what statements are meaningful
analytical - logical
synthetic - senses
what is an analytical statement?
these are tautologies that are true by definition such as a triangle having three sides. It is always true.
or can be transformed into a truth
what is a synthetic statement?
statements that are known through senses such as the weather being warm
what is weak verification?
we can outline what is necessary for it to be true.
what is strong verification?
something that is conclusively ascertainable BUT this is unlikely because of our fallible senses
what are the implications for religious language following the VP?
Religious language is without meaning because it can be verified empirically or synthetically. The statement is not true/false and therefore cannot be meaningful. There are no conditions in which we can know Gods existence and therefore statements are meaningless.
what is hicks parable of the celestial city?
Atheist and an atheist are both walking down the same road.
The theist believes there is a destination, the atheist believes there is not. If they reach the destination, the theist will have been proven right; but if there is no destination on an endless road, this can never be verified. This is an attempt to explain how a theist expects some form of life or existence after death and an atheist does not. They both have separate belief systems and live life accordingly, but logically one is right and the other is not. If the theist is right, he will be proven so when he arrives in the afterlife. But if the atheist is right, they will simply both be dead and nothing will be verified.
What does Hicks parable mean for RL?
Hick argues religious language must at least be considered for weak verification because God can be eschatologically verified. So it is meaningful.
why did popper dislike VP?
Popper opposed the Vienna circle as he thought scientific investigation and clarification includes proving things as wrong, not right. You need refutation.
what is the falsification principle?
a statement can only be meaningful if there is an instance in which it can be deemed true
what is John wisdoms parable of the gardener?
two people, a skeptic and a believer trying to find evidence of a gardener
how did Flew adapt parable of the gardener?
he used it to demonstrate how believers often change their definition of God to suit various scenarios and maintain Gods existence.
how did flew begin the symposium
through adapting John wisdoms parable of the gardener
Why does flews adaptation prove an issue for RL?
a statement can only be meaningful if there is an instance in which the believer will not believe.
what is a bilk?
A bilk is a non-rational unfalsifiable belief that all humans have and are only meaningful to the believer.
who postulated bilks?
hare
what was hares example of bilks?
Hare used the example of a lunatic who believes their professors are trying to kill them.
what does Mitchell add to the symposium?
Basil Mitchell adds that religious claims are not easily falsifiable because of personal experience of divinity and faith in God which changes how a believer sees evidence against God
what did Philips argue about language games?
religious language is one meaning
it doesn’t need to be justified by those outside of the game
salvation, prayer etc. may not make sense outside of the game
what is non-cognitive religious language?
- not factual
- in reference to theological language it argues that it is not intelligible or meaningful .
who would argue religious language is objectivley non-cognitive?
wittgenstein
ayer
popper and flew
who put forward verf principle?
Ayer (log pos)
what are the cognitive approaches to religious language ?
aquinas
what is mitchells parable?
parable of the resistance partisan
describe parable of the partisan?
- there is a war
- you meet a resistance fighter who asks you to trust them
- you do
- but then they start partaking in ambiguous behaviour and even behaviour that could question them, such as fighting with the enemy
- but you have trusted them and will wait for an explanation after the war
what does mithel think are different about religuus belief and scientific statetements
religious beliefs are not like scientific statements that a person is completely detached from
what does mitchells argument mean for religious language?
So, Mitchell is arguing that we can accept that the existence of evil counts as evidence against God’s existence (and so “God exists” is falsifiable and meaningful) without withdrawing belief in God.
evaluate mitchell
- allowing evidence to count against your faith doesnt make it falsifiable
but There are plenty of statements which some people judge to be factual which are not apparently confirmable or disconfirmable through observation - swinburne open theism
religious language can be meaningful because it expresses an intention to follow a certain code of conduct - R.B.Braithwaite
humes influence on hare
- hume argued reason is slave to our passions
- it is rarley obvious to a person that this the case
- we experience rationalisation , using reason to rationalise the irrational because its a part of our passions
hares first criticism of verication/falsification
R. M. Hare disagreed with Verificationism and Falsificationism, arguing that those theories had failed to truly understand how religious language functioned. They saw religious language as an expression of belief that attempts to describe reality. Since it is unverifiable or unfalsifiable, it fails to describe reality and is thus meaningless. Hare argues that if religious language was not an attempt to describe reality then it isn’t actually making a statement at all and so it wouldn’t make sense to get to the stage of calling it unverifiable or unfalsifiable.
for hare, if religious language is not an expression of reality what is it?
- a non-cognitive bilk
are bilks meaningful?
Hare argues that religious language is the same: “God exists” may be unfalsifiable to people who have this blik, but it clearly means something to them. For example, people who believe “God exists” might pray or go to Church – it means enough to them that it affects their behaviour.
In other words, a blik is unfalsifiable but still meaningful to the person who holds it.
what are mitchells ways in which religious language can be understood?
Provisional hypotheses
Vacuous formulae
Significant articles of faith
what are provisional hypothesis?
ideas that can be discarded as soon as new evidence turns up, mostly in science
this is how flew sees religious language
what are Vacuous formulae?
these never change with experience ave little effect on our life, sometimes religious belief but this is silly
what are Significant articles of faith?
These are beliefs that you are committed to; things that make a big difference to how you live your life; ideas that you have invested a lot in and don’t let go of easily. Mitchell thinks reasonable religious beliefs fall into this category.
what is mitchells conclusion?
That believers consider the empirical evidence against their religious belief but overall choose to maintain faith and within this there is a degree of falsification
for flew, Christian allow God to die…
’ die the death of a thousand qualifications ‘
what is flews adaption of the parable?
- two people come across a clearing in a jungle
- many flowers and weeds
- one suggests a gardner must tend the plot the other says there is no gardner
- so they test
- they use bloodhounds and electric wires to try catch this gardner
- but they dont
- so the believer states the gardener must be invisible
- and then sceptic asks ‘ what remains of your original assertion’
- there was a gardener and then there was an invisble intangible being which we had no empericial experience of , you changed the being to fit with your perception of the gardener
what do the flowesrs represent in the parable?
flowers represent the order and beauty in the created order of the world , descrbed by paley as qua regularity
what do the weeds represent?
evil and suffering in the world
what is the process of qualification?
it is the idea that God is qualified to meet new situations which may challenge his existence.
for example, the problem of evil. It is for free will etc.
through qualifiying so much it mean it can never be proven and thus is unfalsifiable and meaningless
therefore God has suffered a death of ‘ a thousand qualifications’ God has changed so much that he can never be proven and is concequently rendered meaningless by the criteria of falsification
strengths of verificationism
- resolves the issue of trying to prove Gods existence or either disprove God existence since God is neither synthetically or analytically plausible language about him is meaningless and trying to prove or disprove him is also.
- face validity, we would generally accept way in proving things, Comte and progression of society in terms of science. Strauss, religious belief was a product of its time.
weaknesses of verificationism
- eschatological verification by hick
- cannot meet its own criteria and be verified
- overly resrticted, wouldnt history be deemed meanigless, thomas khun predicted a paradigdm shift etc
- hare and the bilks
- witgenstein
strengths of falsification
- captures science better than verificationism
- ## distinguishes between rational and irrational beliefs
weaknesses of falsification
- can be falsified, st paul argued if jesus body was found faith in Christianity would be meaningful because he is the key of Christianity. N.T Wright, The ressurection developed christianity and progressed the religion
- mitchell
- hare
- witgenstein
stengths of hare
- Humes influence
- explains different religious belief such that it an expression of our non-cognitive cultural experiences
- ## allows religious language to be subjectively meaningful to the individual
weaknesses of hare
- undermines religious belief and its factual meaning to believers. Aquinas believed that religious belief is cognitive and we can discuss God cognitivley.
- humans are capable of acting indepedent of emotion for Kant and are not just a product of passion. Whilst religious belief is based on emotion it always interplays with reason, to dismiss this would be wrong.
+ wittgenstein
- true that when we use words it depens on the social situtaion
- explains link between science and religion, seperate
- exaplains different religions, they are an expression of different language games or forms of life, lebensform
- true that social seetings influence our language
- Dz phillips - expression of religion is important to the individual
- wittgenstein
- theological anti realism, arguing that when a person says God exsist theyre just expressing their lebensform which is not true to them it is cognitve expression of all realities. Aquinas believed we can use reason and cognitvley argue for Gods existence. Its not a social convention.
- Games can be fused together, polkinghorne, science and religion to prove God
- how does inter-faith dialogue work if people are so different but they happen
- games interact and overlap even with religion and one religion there would be a plethora of games it doesnt explain how they owuld work
- would mean we cannot challange or critique religion which seems risky
