Verification and falsification debates Flashcards
What do Christians tend to believe when they say ‘god is love’?
That they are making cognitive assertions about an all powerful being who made the world and has a relationship with humans,
What was the Vienna circle?
A group of philosophers who met in Vienna, they were led by Schlick and developed the idea of logical positivism.
According to the logical positivists, which statements are meaningful?
- Those which are analytic propositions. 2. Those which can be empirically verified.
What is the verification principle?
If we can’t know how a statement is proven true or false, it is meaningless. “My dog has four legs” is meaningful, “my dog is dreaming about bones” is not.
What is the problem with the verification principle?
There are many things we find meaningful which can’t be verified- discussion on art, music etc. It also means that all historical statements are meaningless as we can’t verify them.
What is the difference between strong verification and verification in principle?
- Strong verification means verification there and then. 2. Verification in principle is when the verifier can make observations which will back up/deny what is being claimed.
How does Ayer allow for historical statements to be verified?
We should accept weak verification, for example “the battle of Hastings was fought in 1066” can be weakly verified through historical artifacts and records.
How is a proposition meaningful to Ayer?
If it is verifiable at least in principle, or at least weakly. Religious statements are meaningless as ‘god’ corresponds to nothing in the real world. Moral statements are meaningless and are just emotional ejaculations which do not assert facts.
Give three issues with Ayer’s view
- If moral statements are just emotional ejaculations, he rules out statements on art, music etc. as meaningless. 2. Weak verification allows for some religious statements to be meaningful, such as those on the life of Jesus. 3. The verification principle can’t be verified at least weakly or by empirical evidence.
How does john hick support Ayer?
His principle lets us identify statements which look meaningful, but aren’t. Imagine a special rabbit who is invisible, inaudible, weightless and intangible, with all of these negations, does the creature really exist?
What is the falsification principle?
Based on the works of Karl popper who asserted that science considers theories true until they are falsified, it is the idea that something is factually significant only if there is some evidence that could falsify it.
What is flew’s position on what makes a statement meaningful?
Statements are meaningful if they are cognitive, statements are cognitive only is there are circumstances that would falsify them, if they can’t be falsified, they don’t relate to the world at all.
What is Wisdom’s parable of the gardener?
Two men come across a well tended garden, one believes that there must be a gardener, the other does not. They wait, and no gardener shows up, the believer says he must be invisible, so they set up motion sensors and send out dogs- still no gardener. The believer says he must be unsmellable and intangible, the atheist asks what the difference is between this gardener and no gardener at all. The theist will let nothing count against his faith so it ‘dies the death of a thousand qualifications.’
What are the two main criticisms of the falsification principle?
- There are many things (art etc.) which are meaningful, yet cannot be falsified. 2. Universal statements such as “all events are caused” are unfalsifiable, yet meaningful.
What example does Swinburne give to show that there are statements which are meaningful yet unfalsifiable?
‘Every night, when you go to sleep, the toys in your cupboard come to life, then return to the cupboard 5 minutes before you wake up.’ This can never be falsified, but is a concept we understand, so is meaningful in that sense.
