The Challenge To Religious Language From Logical Positivism Flashcards
Ludwig Wittgenstein raised the question of the meaning of ?, inspiring debates.
Language.
Wittgenstein was keen to establish the limits of ? knowledge and ?, working out where the line should be drawn about what people could know.
Human.
Imagination.
His writings were a strong influence on the ? ?, led by a writer called ? ?, a group of philosophers who met after WW1.
Vienna Circle.
Moritz Schlick.
Following the thinking of the 19th Century, writer ? ?, the Vienna Circle members believed that ? ? of event and experiences belonged in the past, developing more scientific ways of understanding questions raised by 20th Century life.
Auguste Comte.
Theological interpretations.
Comte said that there had been a “?” era, when people attributed all things they didn’t understand to God replaced by the “?” era, then replaced by the “?” age, when the only useful form of evidence for investigation was that which was available to the sense (? ?), which could be tested in scientific ways.
Theological.
Metaphysical.
Positivist.
Empirical evidence.
Comte influenced the ? ? by claiming that theological explanations were outdated in a scientific age.
Vienna Circle.
The Vienna Circle concluded that ? ? was the key to understanding what was meaningful and what wasn’t.
Empirical evidence.
A.J. Ayer became known for his support of ? ? with the main argument being that statements are only meaningful if they’re ? or ? using the senses.
Logical positivism.
Analytic.
Verifiable.
Philosophers often divide statements into two kinds, ? and ?:
- Analytic statements are propositions that are true by definition, merely defined how a word’s being used, not giving us any extra information.
- Synthetic statements give ? that goes beyond just defining our use of language.
Analytic.
Synthetic.
Information.
The logical positivists decided that ? statements were ?
Analytic.
Meaningful.
The ? ? says that if a synthetic statement’s meaningful, it has to be capable of being ? tested.
Verification principle.
Empirically.
David Hume argued that if a statement doesn’t contain any ? or ? reasoning, then it says nothing at all.
Abstract.
Experimental.
Ayer agreed that in order for any statement to be meaningful, in ? it has to be ? using ? ?
Principle.
Verifiable.
Empirical methods.
If ? ? are only meaningful if they can be tested ?, then religious claims could be considered meaningless.
Synthetic statements.
Empirically.
According to the ? ?, claims such as “? created the world” can’t be shown to be either true or false using the senses.
Logical positivists.
God.
