Flashcards
Religious Language: Key Terms
Cards in this deck (33)
- 1The Verification PrincipleThe idea that statements which are neither analytic nor empirically testable are meaningless.
- 2The Vienna CircleThe group responsible for the VP.
- 3Logical PositivismThe philosophy that the Vienna Circle launched
- 4Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (1921)Constructed the picture theory of language, a big influence on the Vienna circle.
- 5The picture theory of languageThe idea that language is only meaningful if it pictures the world in a 1 to 1 relationship.
- 6AJ Ayer (1910-89)A leading supporter of the VP in Britain.
- 7Language Truth and Logic (1936)Ayer’s book.
- 8An analytic statementOne in which two descriptors of equal meaning are joined by a copula (an ‘is’).
- 9An empirically testable statementOne that you can test to find out whether they are true or false.
- 10Karl Popper (1902-94)Critic of the VP. Founder of the Falsification Principle.
- 11Eschatological verificationJohn Hick’s claim that ‘There is an afterlife’ is verifiable since, if there is an afterlife, we’ll verify it.
- 12The Falsification PrincipleThe idea that statements are meaningless if they are not falsifiable.
- 13‘Parable of the Gardener’John Wisdom’s parable to show that religious beliefs are unfalsifiable.
- 14Anthony FlewProfessor of Philosophy at the University of Reading, in the 1950s. Agreed with Wisdom.
- 15RM Hare (1919-2002)Argued that religious statements such as ‘God is love’ and ‘God exists’ are what might be called ‘Bliks’
- 16A blikA statement of a deep conviction so basic to the person’s world-view that it isn’t capable of being falsified.
- 17Univocally/ EquivocallyWith exactly the same meaning/ with completely different meanings.
- 18Analogy upwards/downwardsWhere something corresponds to the thing in a greater/ lesser way than the original.
- 19Analogy of ProportionWhere a being has such a characteristic in proportion to the level of being it possesses.
- 20Analogy of AttributionWhen a term is used of something because it is caused by something else, where that term applies more properly
- 21Language GamesThe idea that there are as many types of meaning as there are areas of human discourse. The meaning of a word or sentence is, mostly, its use.
- 22Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)The founder of language game theory, in his Philosophical Investigations (1951).
- 23NoncognitivismNon-cognitive uses of language are uses that do not intend to deal in knowledge.
- 24The Via NegativaThe view that only negative statements can be made about God, not positive.
- 25Apophatic theologyAfter the Greek verb apophemi, another word for the Via Negativa.
- 26Pseudo-Dionysius the AreopagiteThe main ancient proponent of the Via Negativa.
- 27Cataphatic theology“Cataphatic” is a combination of the two Greek verbs cata (‘to descend’) and femi (‘to speak’), and roughly means, ‘to bring God down so that we can speak of Him’.
- 28The Via PositivaCataphatic theology. The idea that God can be spoken of in positive, informative terms.
- 29-RB Braithwaite -JH Randall -DZ PhillipsThree non-cognitivist philosophers of religious language.
- 30MythA story in which religious truths are encapsulated and from which they may be inseparable.
- 31Rudolph Bultmann (1884-76)A proponent of ‘demythologisation’ – getting rid of the more deeply mythological aspects of religion.
- 32SymbolSomething that represents something else by association, resemblance or convention.
- 33Paul Tillich (1886-65)A proponent of the idea that all religious language is symbolic.
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- a level religious language key words
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- Deleted user · Jan 2018
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- Jan 17, 2018
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- Created by Izzy Noone · Jan 10, 2018
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