The Falsification Symposium

What does Falsification mean?

principle that a statement is a genuine scientific assertion if it is possible to say how it could be disproved empirically

Who came up with the Falsification Symposium?

Flew

What is Flew’s Falsification Symposium?

refers to a series of articles written in the 1950s which included and responded to Antony Flew’s initial presentation of falsification

Who originally devised the falsification theory?

Popper

What was Popper’s original falsification theory?

test for what is science and what is merely pseudoscience (theory pretending to be scientific)

• scientific claims are testable - if they were false, you could prove them to be false

How did Popper use his original falsification theory to criticise Freud?

Criticised Freud’s psychology as not falsifiable (e.g. Oedipus Complex)

• if it cannot be subject to tests that would show how it could be false, then it is not a real scientific theory

• just pseudo-science

How did Flew apply Popper’s Falsification?

applied this principle to the use of religious language

• religious language cannot be falsified - this consideration means that religious statements are not statements at all

What example did Flew use to explain his Falsification Symposium?

Parable of the Garden

• one explorer believes there is a gardener, the other does not

• as they wait and watch, no gardener is found

• believer continues to argue that the garden exists but the story has now changed - he must be an invisible, intangible gardener who works in secret

What famous quote does Flew say regarding the Parable of the Gardener?

“But what remains of your original assertion?”

What is Flew’s conclusion about religious language?

Religious claims about the world aren’t really claims at all as they cannot be tested - not “genuine assertions”

• when challenged, the believer waters down their claim, shift the goal posts - so much so that they are not saying anything at all

• religious claims suffer “the death of a thousand qualifications”

What quote does Flew say regarding how religious language is unsuccessful?

“the death of a thousand qualifications”

How does Flew apply his Falsification Symposium to the Problem of Evil?

When a believer is challenged over their claim that ‘God loves people’ it reduces to ‘God loves people but allows free will, develops character, does not intervene, has a bigger plan, and moves in mysterious ways’

• Flew - how would this differ from there being no God at all?

How does Hick address Falsification?

Prefers verification as a test of religious statements

• verification & falsification are not opposites

If religious belief is true, it can be verified eschatologically, yet if it is false it cannot be shown to be false

• verification is a better test!

How does Swinburne address Falsification?

Questioned whether verification and falsification is the correct test for religious statements

• e.g. toys in the cupboard coming alive at night when no one is watching them

Although it is an unverifiable and unfalsifiable statement, it is meaningful as we can understand the claim it makes

How is Swinburne’s address to Falsification criticised?

Swinburne oversimplifies the issue

Who created the Parable of the Lunatic?

Hare

What is Hare’s Parable of the Lunatic?

• Lunatic is convinced that all the dons (professors) at the university want to kill him

• his friends encourage him to meet the kindest dons they can find

• however, this does not convince him

• lunatic replies that this shows just how cunning the dons are; they are trying to lore him into a false sense of security

What does Hare’s Parable of the Lunatic show?

Hare is attempting to defend religious beliefs - Flew misunderstands the language involved

• Flew is wrong to apply scientific criteria to theological language

Hare argues that we all have basic beliefs that he calls ‘blinks’

• some blinks are reasonable and some are not

Religious belief is a blink and as such cannot be empirically tested

Who influences Hare’s beliefs on Falsification?

Influenced by Wittgeinstein’s language games

How is Hare’s criticism of Flew’s Falsification successful?

If Hare is not right that religious belief is not scientific - allows religious statements to have meaning to the individual

• the challenge that Flew makes fails

How is Hare’s criticism of Flew’s Falsification unsuccessful?

Seems inadequate - believers claiming ‘God loves us’ are not just claiming a subjective truth

• they believe themselves to be making a claim about reality as a whole

Who created the Parable of the Partisan?

Mitchell

What is Mitchell’s Parable of the Partisan?

• in a war-torn country, a partisan (resistance fighter) meets a stranger who persuades him that he is the secret commander of the resistance despite sometimes working undercover

• afterwards, the stranger sometimes helps, but is also often seen in the uniform of the opposition handing over resistance fighters

• when challenged, the partisan says “the strangers knows best”

What can Mitchell’s Parable of the Partisan demonstrate about believers?

Faith and belief that believers have in God

What does Mitchell’s Parable of the Paristan show?

Mitchell partly accepts Flew’s points

• suggests that there is evidence that counts for and against belief: the believer recognises that the problem of evil is a problem

However, the believer does not allow the evidence to decisively count against beliefs

• they are not a detached observer but are committed by faith to truth God

How is Mitchell’s Parable of the Partisan more successful then Hare?

recognises the role of evidence - Hare does not

• if the believer is like Hare’s lunatic, then evidence is irrelevant

rejects the idea that religious beliefs are blinks

How does Mitchell’s Parable of the Partisan compare to Flew’s Falsification Symposium?

Supports Flew’s idea that religious statements are assertions are assertions or claims

• but, unlike Flew, sees a genuine role for faith