Twentieth century religious language Flashcards
Define ‘logical positivism’
A movement that claimed that assertions have to be capable of being tested empirically if they are to be meaningful
Define ‘cognitive’
Having a factual quality that is available to knowledge where words are labels for things in the world
Define ‘non-cognitive’
Not having a factual quality that is available to knowledge, words are tools to achieve something rather than labels
Define ‘symposium’
A group of people who meet to discuss a particular question or theme
Define ‘falsification’
Providing evidence to determine that something is false
Define ‘demythologising’
Removing the mythical elements from a narrative to expose the central message
Philosophical discussion about meaning identifies two different ways in which a word or phrase means something, what are they?
Connotation: when the word carries other associations e.g. ‘window’ may be used to express an opportunity, they can convey unintended meaning and different meanings in different contexts
Denotation: when the words stands as something as a label taken at face value e.g. ‘X-ray’
Who were the Vienna Circle?
A group of philosophers who met after the First World War at the University of Vienna until the 1930s, led by Moritz Schlick, discussions were varied from maths, science and philosophy
How could the Vienna Circle be described in terms of Enlightenment?
They believed ‘God’ was just an excuse to explain what people couldn’t understand and it was time to move away to develop a greater scientific understanding
Describe the ideas of Auguste Comte
- Before the Vienna Circle he thought that people’s thinking had passed through various stages over time
- Understanding science led people to adopt accurate and sophisticated ideas
- ‘Theological era’ of God has been replaced by ‘metaphysical era’ for science to ‘fill in the gaps’
Describe Comte’s idea of a positivist era
When the only useful form of evidence for investigation was empirical evidence and that which could be scientifically tested
How did Comte believe a statement could be meaningful? How did this impact the Vienna Circle?
It could be tested empirically, if not then it was meaningless - this view became known as logical positivism adopted by the VC
Who was A.J.Ayer?
A British philosopher who went to the University of Vienna after graduating Oxford and wrote a very influential book ‘Language, Truth and Logic’ aged 26 in 1936 to set down rules by which language could be judged
How did Ayer validate statements as meaningful?
The should be either analytical or empirical
Logical positivists decided synthetic statements are meaningful by empirical validation, what are they?
Information beyond definition e.g. ‘Alex is allergic to shellfish’
What was the main focus of Wittgenstein’s work?
To establish the limits of human knowledge and imagination, to work out where the line should be drawn between what people could know and what people could understand and what was beyond the grasp of human knowledge
What is the verification principle? (Ayer)
If a synthetic statement is to be meaningful it has to be able to be tested empirically, even if the statement is false, it is meaningful. Therefore religious statements are meaningless
Why could Wittgenstein not stay in Vienna during the war?
He had a Jewish descent and so spent most of his working life as a philosopher in Cambridge intrigued by the philosophical questions raised by maths and engineering
What Wittgenstein believe was very important to realise?
Reality is not completely intelligible to us as some aspects can be spoke about or verified empirically but there are other aspects beyond our understanding e.g. nature of infinity and timelessness
Give a quote from Wittgenstein
“Whereof one cannot speak thereof one must remain silent”
Name one of Wittgenstein’s books and its aims
‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’ 1921
Set out principles to demonstrate what could not be expressed through language to show the scope of human reason and philosophy but in later life he criticised his work and changed his theory
Describe Wittgenstein’s later work
Explored how language had different meanings in different contexts, how words can indicate more than one idea and language is a process
Describe Wittgenstein’s term ‘lebensform’
‘Form of life’ to denote the context in which language might be used
Describe Wittgenstein’s language games
- Not implying that language is trivial
- Non-cognitive approach
- Conversation is the game and the people talking are the players e.g. in a religious context ‘God loves us’ as you become more immersed in Christian life you will gain a deeper understanding of what this means in your life
