These revision notes for the new OCR Religious Studies A level cover theories about religious language from the 20th century. They cover logical positivism/the verification principle, the falsification principle and the ideas of Wittgenstein, Hare and Mitchell. It includes evaluation of the ideas ...
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Religious Studies
G581 - A2 Philosophy of Religion
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9: Religious Language: 20th-Century Perspectives
Cognitive Having factual quality that is available to knowledge
Non-Cognitive Language or thought that cannot be true or false and does not aim to express how
things are
Logical A movement that claimed that assertions have to be capable of being tested
positivism empirically if they are to be meaningful
The Vienna Founded by Otto Neurath in 1907 at the University of Vienna. Modern scientific theories
Circle formed the basis of their debates. They developed the idea of logical positivism
Auguste His writings influenced the logical positivists. Believed theological interpretations of
Comte events and experiences belonged in the past - to an unenlightened aged where people
attributed what they didn't understand to God. Thought the only evidence is that which
can be tested scientifically. Believed a claim is only meaningful if it can be tested
A.J. Ayer Wrote 'Language, Truth and Logic'. Believed statements are only meaningful if they are
either analytic - true by definition, or synthetic - can be verified with the senses. They
have to be verifiable using empirical evidence. If it is neither analytic not synthetic is says
nothing about reality and is therefore meaningless. By this he meant they were not
factually significant - he recognised they might have meaning for some people
Strong When there is no doubt the statements is meaningful because it can be tested
Verification empirically - literally verifiable
Weak Verifiable in principle e.g. historic claims
verification
Ayer differs He believed in weak verification. His own example was 'there are mountains on the far
from Vienna side of the moon' At the time this could not be verified but it's a meaningful statement as
Circle we know how it could be tested
Verification All verification asserts that all religious statements are meaningless because we can't
and religious verify it in principle or in theory
statements
Verification Many people reject the entire verification principle as a way of testing meaning as it is
Evaluation not verifiable so by its own rules it is meaningless. Ayer's response was that the verification
principle was a theory, not a statement, and so does not need to be tested in the same
way.
Historical and ethical claims cannot be verified empirically
Some scientific claims cannot be verified empirically either e.g. the existence of black
holes and doctors cannot verify claims made by their patients about the state of their
mental health empirically
It is not consistent with modern science as many scientific statements such as atoms or
forces are not verifiable
Hick's He used the Parable of the Celestial City: 2 people are walking along a road, one thinks
rejection of it'll lead to the celestial city, the other believes it goes nowhere. Only when they reach
Ayer and the end will they know the truth.
Verificationism This is known as eschatological verification. Hick argues that as it will be possible to verify
the meaningfulness of religious statements in the future so they are meaningful
according to weak verification. But if you die and there is no afterlife, you can no longer
verify the statement, also if there is an afterlife, we may not have senses in the same way
Keith Ward He reasoned that God's existence can, in principle, be verified since God himself can
verify his own existence
Ludwig Austrian philosopher. Influenced the Vienna Circle and logical positivists. Jewish
Wittgenstein background - later described himself as agnostic
Wittgenstein's Believed reality is not completely intelligible to us. He thought we should confine
early beliefs ourselves to only talking about the parts of reality that can be conceptualised. In his
early work, Tractatus (1921) he attempted to set out principles to demonstrate what
could be expressed in language. 'Wherefore of we cannot speak, one must remain
silent'
Wittgenstein's He thought he had been wrong about the limitations of language. He explored the way
later beliefs language can have meaning in different wats and how language develops and
changes. The Vienna Circle rejected his later ideas because they allowed religious
language to be meaningful. He believed that only through an understanding of the
context can we fully understand it. He believed philosophers don't have a right to make
a judgement on language games that they are not playing and cannot judge if it is
meaningful or not. Language and the rules of that language can be seen from two
sides, those who are inside the game and therefore know the rules and those who are
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