Verification and falsification debates Flashcards
What do Christians believe when they say “god loves us”?
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 logical positivism.
How are statements meaningful for logical positivists?
- If they are analytic. 2. If they are synthetic and can be empirically verified.
What is the verification principle?
If we can’t know how to prove a statement true/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 that can’t be verified (art, music etc) it also means historical statements are meaningless as we can’t verify them.
What is the difference between strong verification and verification in principle?
- Strong verification- verification there and then. 2. Verification in principle- we can make observations which will back up/deny what is being claimed.
How does Ayer allow historical statements to be verified?
We should accept weak verification, ‘the battle of Hastings took place in 1066’ can be weakly verified through artifacts and records.
How is a proposition meaningful for Ayer?
If it’s 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 mere emotional ejaculations.
Give three issues with Ayer
- If moral statements are just emotional ejaculations, he rules out statements on music, art etc. 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 hick support Ayer?
His principle lets us identify statements that look meaningful, but aren’t. Imagine a special rabbit who is inaudible, weightless, intangible and invisible, with all of these negations, does the creature actually exist?
What is the falsification principle?
Based on the work of Karl popper, he asserted that science considers theories true until they are falsified, something is factually significant only if there is some evidence that could falsify it.
What makes a statement meaningful for flew?
If it is cognitive, it is only cognitive if there are circumstances that would falsify it. If a statement can’t be falsified, it doesn’t relate to the world at all.
What is wisdom’s parable of the gardener?
Two men see a well tended garden, one believes there must be a gardener, the other disagrees. They wait, but no one shows up, the believer says he must be invisible, so they set up motion sensors and guard dogs- still no gardener. The believer says he must be unsmellable and intangible, the atheist asks what the difference is between that gardener and no gardener at all. The theist will let nothing count against his faith so it ‘dies the death of 1000 qualifications.’
Give two criticisms of the falsification principle
- Many things such as art are meaningful but can’t be falsified. 2. Universal statements like ‘all events are caused’ are unfalsifiable, yet meaningful.
What example does Swinburne give of a meaningful yet unfalsifiable statement?
‘Every night when you go to sleep, the toys in your cupboard come to life, retuning to the cupboard 5 minutes before you wake up.’ It can never be falsified, but is a concept we understand, so is meaningful in that sense.
