essay: evaluate the verification principle

intro n judgement: basis of vp: whether particular statements can be empirically proven, denoting the worthiness of related discussion. » the verification principle detracts from the meaning and value of faith, believing that the human intellect is capable of understanding/proving that much

P1: Brummer: to argue the idea that the only statements of meaning are those that are open to the observations of science, makes the metaphysical assumption that the entire contents of reality are those possibly known to science

  • “the Principle of Verification is, by its own definition, meaningless: the principle is neither sense observable, nor is it a tautology.”

  • similarly hume » “there is no such thing as 100% proof for a scientific theory, or for cause and effect in general.”

CP: ayer’s 2nd version

  • the weak verification of ayer’s verification principle allows statements of probable truth through experience n observation, as well as indirect verification, not through observation but deductions

    • still fails to consider Hick’s critique that whilst we may not be able to verify God and related religious language whilst alive, we can discover the verifiability of religious language in the afterlife

P2: religious claims might be verified after death

  • the nature of much religious language is such that it can only be taken in faith whilst on earth, with the potential of comprehension in the afterlife, beyond our human capabilities, seeing God face-to-face » eschatological verification

  • hick: “in principle we could experience God, so God talk is verifiable in Principle.”

CP: critics argue this does not satisfy the verification requirement, as it is uncertain if an afterlife would allow empirical verification in the same way as in this life

P3: karl popper - came up with falsification, the philosophical theory that an assertion is meaningless if there’s not a way in which it can be falsified

  • The verification principle was eventually modified into the falsification principle, which suggests that for a statement to be meaningful, it must be possible to conceive of evidence that could prove it false

  • This shift indicates an acknowledgment that the verification principle alone was too restrictive and ultimately unsuccessful in its original form

CP: richard swinburne - the coherence of theism

  • “some of the toys which to all appearances stay in the toy cupboard while people are asleep and no one is watching, actually get up and dance in the middle of the night and then go back to the cupboard leaving no traces of their activity.”

  • this can be neither proven true or false (verified or falsified), but it can be understood and is therefore meaningful