Verification and Falsification Flashcards
Who was involved in the Vienna Circle?
Wittgenstein and Mortiz Schlick
What was debated in the Vienna Circle?
The meaning of meaning
What is the only useful form of evidence?
That derived from the senses
What is logical Positivism?
Only propositions that can be verified are meaningful
What 2 forms of verifiable language does logical positivism accept?
- analytic a priori
- synthetic a posterior
What did A.J. Ayer propose?
The Verification principle
What is the Verification Principle?
Statements are only meaningful if they can be verified
What do empiricists accept?
That sense experience is the best source of knowledge
What was a criticism of the Verification Principle that meant it had to be redeveloped?
It is too rigid
How did Ayer reform the Verification Principle?
Strong Verification: the proposition must be abe to be proven in theory
Weak Verification: the proposition must be proven using sense experience
What are the main criticisms of Verification in relation to religious language?
Ian Ramsey: verification holds no real challenge to religious language - it acts as a model
Paul Tillich: religious language should be used symbolically not literally
Peter Vardy: just because you cannot verify something does not make it meaningless
John Hick: religious experience can be verified at the end of our lives, eschatological verification
Who proposed the falsification principle?
Anthony Flew
What is the falsification principle?
A statement is true until proven false
What does Flew claim about religious believers?
They won’t accept evidence against them
What is falsification based on?
To assert something is to deny something else
What is the example used by Flew?
‘All swans are white until proven false’ - this is a meaningful statement as it can then be proven false
What did Karl Popper state?
All we can do is search for the falsity to our best theory
What did Anthony Flew use to challenge religious belief?
John Wisdom’s parable of the gardener
Who challenges Falsification?
R.M Hare: ‘Bliks’ religious beliefs are bliks, one way of looking at the world. H believed religious statements to be non-cognitive as religious language cannot make factual claims
Basil Mitchell: Resistance leader demonstrates that a person will often take a statement as meaningful on trust - trust in God is built on faith
Swinburne: ‘Cupboard of Toys’ analogy they could come alive when no one is looking but evidence can never be gathered to falsify the toys moving. Religious statements are non-cognitive and should not be treated as falsifiable
What is Anti-realism?
There is no absolute truth, what is true for one person may not be true for another
