Phil HL - Religious Language - The Verification Principle

Phil HL - Religious Language - The Verification Principle

1. A sentence is meaningful if...

   • it is a tautology (true by definition)
   • Can be proved true/false, even if only in principle
     • There is life on other planets
     • Verifiable by sense experience

2. Religious Statements

   • Can't be verified
     • The soul is reborn
     • There is life after death
   • Don't talk about observable things/properties in the world
   • Don't make sense without context
   • Depend on the reader's beliefs
   • Are useful in picturing the character of Christ (his qualities)
   • Helpful in understanding Christian theology: principles valued, importance of Christ
   • Cosmological argument
     • can be verified to a certain extent (beginning of the universe) but not before that

3. Criticisms

   • The statement itself is not meaningful
     • Can't be verified by sense experience
   • Sentences that are meaningful to us can be dismissed
     • I love you
     • I had a weird dream
     • all ravens are black - can be falsified in principle therefore meaningless
     • beauty is subjective - can't be empirically falsified/verified
     • historical events sometimes can't be empirically verified by our senses/observations

4. A statement...

   • can be verified depending on whether you can check it with empirical evidence
     • It is currently snowing
   • Cognitive (realist) Language
     • Factual statements, can be verified with empirical evidence
   • Non cognitive Language
     • Context dependent, can't be verified/falsified
       • Symbols, myths, metaphors
   • Analytical statements
     • true by definition, can't be false because of wording
   • Mathematical statements
     • incorrect only because of human error, can be recalculated
   • Synthetic statements
     • are verifiable/falsifiable by empirical evidence

5. Verification (A. J. Ayer

   • Practical Verifiability
     • a statement can be tested in reality, in practise
   • Verifiability in Principle
     • we can, but lack the ability
   • strong
     • can be verified conclusively
   • weak
     • can be shown to be probable through observation