Religious Language

Describe weak verificationism

- A statement is meaningful IFF it is analytic or can be established through a series of indirect or direct observation statements
- Overcomes the objection of the basis of unobservables, and universal and historical statements

Explain indirect verification

We know in principle what observation is necessary to ascertain in truth, even if it is not currently possible. It is verifiable in principle.

Explain direct verification

A statement that is verifiable by observation eg. I see a key - directly verifiable and therefore has factual meaning

Define falsifiable

Logically incompatible with some set of empirical observations

Explain Carl Popper's stance on falsification

- Attempt at distinguishing between the scientific method and the non-scientific method
- He claimed that the scientific method is based on falsification rather than verification
- Through the falsification principle, we can legitimately mark universal claims that are meaningful

Describe the falsification principle

A statement is meaningful if it could be falsified by some set of empirical observations

Describe Flew's Parable of the Gardener

'There is a jungle with flowers and weeds. One explorer believes there is a gardener tending to the plot, the other remains skeptical. Tests like bloodhounds, electric fences and barbed wire are set up.'

Flowers = good on Earth - beauty, creation and order
Weeds = disorder and evil on Earth
Explorers = believers and non-believers
Bloodhounds = mortal struggles, tests of faith and ways of trying to ascertain God's existence

Explain the meaning behind the Parable of the Gardener

- Nothing can be done to disprove the existence of the gardener
- Instead, the believer adjusts his definitions of the gardener to fit the evidence of non-appearance, for example

Explain Flew's position on religious language

1) Religious believers allow nothing to count against their belief in God eg. Problem of Evil
2) Therefore, no situation could in principe falsify their beliefs
3) A belief which cannot be falsified is meaningfulness

'Religious statements are meaningless because they die by a thousand qualifications.'
^ Religious beliefs begin as an assertion but get reduced at each step and end up as a picture preference

Is Flew a cognitivist or non-cognitivist?

Cognitivist because he believes that religious language could have meaning

Explain Ayer's position on God and indirect verification

- This could rule of the verification of God because we don't know what it would take (in principle) to verify God

Describe strong verificationism

- A statement is meaningful IFF it is analytic or conclusively verifiable
- Conclusively verifiable = there are some finite set of observation statements that entail a statement

Explain the challenge to strong verifcationism

The status of universal statements and unobservables

Explain the objections to the falsification principles

- Some statements are impossible to falsify (existential or probabilistic statements)
- For example, the statement that 'the chance of flipping a coin that turns up heads is 50%'. But an infinite number of trials could be necessary to prove that it is logical

Explain the response to the claim that some statements are impossible to falsify

We could reduce the standard of 'logically incompatible' to 'evidence against'

Describe eschatological verification

(John Hick) The claim that statements can be verified after death, such as the existence of God, so religious statements are meaningful because they are truth apt

Explain the challenge to eschatological verificationism

It assumes the preservation of our consciousness, senses and personal identity after death

Explain the analogy of the celestial city

- John Hick
- Two men are on a path to the celestial city
- One believes that the path will lead to the celestial city, but the other does not
- The only way to verify whether or not the path will lead to the city is to follow the path
- Celestial city = afterlife
- Men on the path = religious and non-religious believers

Explain the meaning of the Parable of the Paranoid Student

- In the case of the paranoid student, the statements made are unfalsifiable
- Suggests that something may be unfalsifiable and unverifiable but still have meanings
- Beliefs can be meaningful because they can tell us about a person's state of mind or help predict behaviour

Define a blik

- A blik is a world view which forms the framework in the way which we understand the world.
- They filter out the way in which we understand the world.
- Truth values cannot be ascribed to bliks

Explain Hare's position on religious statements

- Religious statements don't have to be falsifiable
- They are not assertions about facts, they are expressions of a non-falsifiable world view

Explain the relationship between bliks and religious statements

- Rational believers do not treat statements about religion as expressions of a blik - they are explanatory
- If religious beliefs are bliks, then they cannot be true or false
- Therefore, there is no way of judging which one to follow other than personal preference

Explain Mitchell's position on the Parable of the Gardener

- Flew is wrong to characterise religious believers as people who are qualifiers of their own beliefs when confronted with falsifying evidence
- This evidence will cause detached observers to drop these beliefs, but believers understand this and trust in God so do not allow this evil to count decisively against their beliefs

Explain the difference between a believer and a detached observer

Detached observer = people, like scientists, who would change their beliefs if the evidence appeared to contradict these beliefs
Believer = people who would not change their beliefs, because they have unchanging 'bliks', like religious bliks

Explain Mitchell's Parable of the Partisan

- The partisan meets a stranger and is deeply impressed by this interaction, so the partisan chooses to trust the stranger
- The partisan sees the stranger helping members of the resistance and tells his friends that they have the support of the stranger
- Other times, the stranger is seen handing over patriots to the opposing power, but the partisan still holds that the stranger is on his side
- Despite the stranger handing over patriots to the opposing power, the partisan believes the stranger will not deceive him and will not allow anything to contradict his belief that the stranger is on his side

Explain the meaning behind Mitchell's Parable of the Partisan

- Religious believers' trust in God overcomes the supposed evidence that contradicts His existence
- The partisan's refusal to answer what it would take for him to believe that the stranger was not on his side is a criticism of Flew, because we cannot know what it would take for us to change our belief in God
- Error on Flew's behalf to claim that evidence against God can be determined prior to its occurrence

What is Flew's position on religious language?

We can read religious language as provisional hypotheses - ideas to be discarded when contradictory evidence turns up. Religious language is not meaningful because beliefs which cannot be falsified is meaningless, so statements about God are meaningless.

What is Hare's position on religious language?

We could read religious language as vacuous formulae - belief that never change based on experience and make no difference to life. It is meaningful because they tell us about a person's state of mind and help us predict their behaviour.

What is Mitchell's position on religious language?

We could read religious language as significant articles of faith - they are beliefs that we are committed to. Religious language meets the cognitivist standard of meaning, as it expresses a belief.

Is Hare a cognitivist or non-cognitivist?

Hare is a non-cognitivist - in the Parable of the Paranoid Student, the religious statements don't have to be falsifiable as they are expressions of a non-falsifiable world view. Religious language is meaningful in a non-cognitive sense.

What is Ayer's position on religious language?

Ayer claims that religious statements are meaningless because it fails the verification principle.

Explain Ayer's claim that 'God talk is nonsense'

- If God is something that cannot be meaningfully described, then even if a Mystic experiences God then they still cannot give a meaningful description of their experience
- Nothing can be done to test the truth or falsehood of the Mystic's vision or encounters with God so they must be considered meaningless

Describe Hick's Parable of the Celestial City

- A pilgrim is following a winding path, and he tells his friend that at the end of the road is a celestial city
- The friend does not believe that there is a celestial city at the end of the road
- What lies at the end of the road will be discovered after they reach the end of the path

Explain the meaning of Hick's Parable of the Celestial City

- Celestial city = afterlife
- Pilgrim = religious believer
- Reinforces the concept of eschatological verification - the potential verifiability of religious statements makes them meaningful

Ayer's response to the claim that the VP is self-defeating

- The principle is a criteria of meaning - a claim about the nature of statements
- It's truth may be determined through the arguments of its implications

- Although Ayer does not believe in religious statements having meaning, this could support religious statements being verifiable through VP is the truth is derived from its implications

What does Wittgenstein mean by language games?

- Language is guided by rules, with these rules governing the meaning of our words.
- Different forms of language have different rules which determine the meaning of a sentence; outside of a language game, a sentence is meaningless
- Language games are an expression of a 'form of life'

What are the two components necessary for a language game?

Surface grammar = syntactic form of an expression, the arrangement and tautology of a sentence
Depth grammar = corresponds to the way an expression is used - occasion sensitive, acknowledges the use of a statement
eg. Hitler had black hair and a black soul

What are Wittgenstein's 3 main claims regarding language games?

1) Understanding meaning requires an appreciation of use (language games)
2) Understanding meaning requires an understanding of depth grammar
3) Language games are an expression of a form of life (collective cultural activities)

Explain Wittgenstein on religious language

- Religious language has a depth grammar that is distinct from its surface grammar. Surface grammar appears empirical, as if religious language talks about things and events
- A religious belief is a passionate commitment to a system of reference, it's a way of living or assessing life

Is Wittgenstein a cognitivist or non-cognitivist?

Non-cognitivist - religious language can be meaningful if you are in the same language game