Flashcards
Religious Language (A level)
Cards in this deck (49)
- 1Luwig WittgensteinSuggested philosophical problems would be solved if language people used was more precise and limited to statements which there could be evidence for.
- 2Tractatus Logio-PhilosophusWittgenstein's book. Set out a norrow view of what would count as a meaningful proposition. 'The world that is the case' - whatever cannot be shown to correspond to some observable reality cannot be meaningfully spoken about.
- 3Religious, metaphysical claims.To do with a general interpretation of life- eg. 'there is a God.' They are not specific bits of information. Many religious claims are also about the supernatural (concepts that cannot be accounted for in the physical world). A belief in these terms leads outside the realm of science and into the world of metaphysics.
- 4Vienna CircleGroup of philosophers who took up Wittgenstein's ideas and took the approach of Logical Positivism. Leader of the Vienna Circle was Moritz Schlick.
- 5Hume's ForkHume argued that we can have knowledge of just two sorts of thing 1) matters of fact and 2) the relations between ideas (eg. in mathematics).
- 6Logical PositivistsTook their starting point from Hume's Fork and claimed that there are only two types of meaningful language which are synthetic propositions and analytic propositions.
- 7Synthetic PropositionsDependent upon evidence. Eg. the sun will rise tommorow as it rises every day. We therefore know exactly what the proposition means so its meaningful.
- 8Analytic PropositionsThese are propositions true by definition/by the words used and these are meaningful because they are self evident. Eg. frozen water is ice.
- 9Logical Positivists' conclusionMetaphysics and theology are meaningless because 1) there is no evidence to support them, they are therefore not synthetic and 2) they are not true by definition/words used.
- 10Verification PrincipleSchlick argued that the meaning of a statement is its method of verification. This essentially dictates that if there is no way in which you could give an account of a statement in terms of sense experience, then its meaningless.
- 11A.J. AyerPromoted logical positivism in his book Language; Truth and Logic. Makes the point that theism and atheism are equally nonsense as neither can be shown to be true on the basis of evidence. God is a metaphysical being so is not discoverable by sense experience or describable using scientific language.
- 12CognitiveLanguage is cognitive if it conveys factual information, most cognitive statements are synthetic (they are shown to be true or false based upon evidence).
- 13Non- CognitiveTo say that a statement is non-cognitive is to say that it is innapropriate to ask whether or not it is factual. Non- cognitive statements may convey emotions, give orders or make moral claims.
- 14Strengths of Verificationist Challenge-Makes a straightforward demand for verification through sense experience.
-In line with empirical science
-Does make a demand for realism in what we say about the world. - 15Weaknesses of Verificationist Challenge-Dismisses whole range of history eg. morality, asethetics, art... as meaningless whereas they give direction and meaning to human existence.
-Science deals with unobservable entities so the VP should dismiss science but it does not.
-It should recognise that philosophers of religion hold that religious statements can be verified in principle by the empirical statements made by observers at the time.
-Appears to be a metaphysical assumption about the way that things really are -VP is an example of the thing that it was guarding against. - 16The Falsification PrincipleA sentence is factually significant if and only there is some form of evidence which could falsify it.
- 17Karl PopperArgued that science works primarily through falsification rather than verification. If you consider that nothing could ever prove your claim to be false then it is not scientific.
- 18Principle of FalsificationIf you want to make a factual, cognitive claim then you have to be able to specify what it is that could falsify that claim.
- 19Parable of The GardenerA story developed by Flew in which Flew applies Popper's ideas about falsification to religious language and decides that it is meaningless.
- 20Parable of The Gardener AnalysisBeliever in the parable ill allow nothing to falsify his belief that there is a gardener who loves and looks after his garden. In the same way, the religious believer will allow nothing to falsify his belief that there is a God who looks after the world.
- 21Flew and the Falsification PrincipleSataements about God are therefore 'vacuous' according to Flew, if you do not admit that there is some sort of evidence that could falsify your belief.
- 22Strengths of the Falsificationist ChallengeHas the strength of forcing religious believers to explain why relgious 'facts' are not ordinary facts. For example, it is difficult for believers to explain why God is unable to control evil.
- 23Weaknesses of the Falsificationist Challenge-Tends to ignore the fact that life is not confined to factual meaning -humans use art for example, to interpret meaning.
-Too rigid in its understanding of the truth; truth is not restricted to scientific truth but can include metaphysical truths about the universe- cannot be analysed by falsificationism.
-Not true that religious believers will allow nothing to falsify their beliefs- extent of evil in the world causes many to lose their belief. - 24Hick- Cognitive Religious Statements as Cognitive & Eschatological Verification-Claims that concept of God will be verified eschatologically so religious language is cognitive.
- 25Parable of the Celestial CityTraveller who believes in celestial kingdom has no evidence to determine whether or not it exists but is still commited to its existence- will be shown to be right or wrong at the end of the journey.
- 26Replica Theory-Hick establishes that ressurection of the body is at least logically possible so the believer has grounds for hope.
- 27Strengths of Hick's Argument-Is a real possibility
-Makes strong claim that religious language must be congitive since claims of Christian religion as a whole after eath will be shown to be factually true or false.
-Interpretation is a factor in experience -people interpret information in different ways so disagreements about religion are understandable. - 28Weaknesses of Hick's Argument-For the atheist, Hick's views are merely wishful thinking.
-Has an asymmetrical view of verification and falsification- if its true it can be verified but if its is false it can never be falsified because dead people experience nothing.
-Evidence could come from NDEs and claims about reincarnational memories. - 29Hare- Religious Statements as Non- Verifiable, Non-Cognitive Bliks-Bliks= assumptions about the world -everybody has a set of bliks which gives them a framework to understand other beliefs.
-Bliks cannot be used as evidence within a debate so must be non-cognitive. - 30Hare's Parable of the LunaticThere may be different types of bliks -insane ones and sane ones and also relgious ones.
-Religious bliks are so powerful that well meaning philosophers cannot make believers think differently. - 31Flew's Response to Hare-Believers really do think that their religious claims are cognitive otherwise there would be no point in making them.
-The believer who says that God is love really means that to be a factual statement, but no religious claims are factual within reality because they are non-falsifiable and meaningless. - 32Strengths of Hare's Theory of Bliks-Explains why different religions make different factual claims; their claims are not factual at all; they are non-cognitive bliks.
-Explains why believers generally reject any evidence that contradicts their beliefs; they bend evidence to fit their bliks.
-For their believer, accroding to Hick, everything is experienced as having religious meaning. - 33Weaknesses of Hare's Theory-Most believers see thier beliefs as cognitive- as making factual claims about the universe.
-If there are no factual beliefs in christianity, its value reduces to statements of psychology or sociology.
-Christians are not likely to agree with Hare that their beliefs are non-cognitive whether they know it or not. - 34Wittgenstein- Religious Language as a Language Game-Use and context of statement govern its meaning according to Wittgenstein.
-Different activites (eg. playing chess) are 'forms of life' and only make sense when the nature and purpose of the activity is understood.
Language is therefore an indefintive set of social activities each serving a different kind of purpose- A Language Game. - 35Language Games-Not right or wrong- merely useful for the job that you want them to do.
-So, Religious Language is its own LG, with its own set of rules .
-No contradiction between statements- these are just different perspectives. Religious and scienfic LGs differ so debates are irrelevant to meaning.
-God in religious LG is not a scientific hypothesis about a being, but a word within the religious community to denote the creative power within everything. - 36Strengths of LG theory-Avoids verificationist and falsificationist confusion about what relgious language is trying to do.
-Allows a variety of meaning (eg. artistic) without demanding that everything shoud conform to a scientific/empirical norm.
-Wittgenstein sees that religion is about the reality of God in the life of the believing community.
-As H.H. Price puts it- religion is about the passionate commitment of belief in God, not the intellectual statement that there is a God. - 37Weaknesses of LG theory-Isolating belief from external criticism is not a good thing.
-LGs are supposedly self contained but many Christians are committed to dialogue with those outside their LG.
-Most believers do agree with Wittgenstein about the nature of the religious LG. Religious statements no longer have to be true or false but most believers want to make what they see as true claims.
-Assumes that there can be no evidence for metaphysical beliefs but existence of laws of nature imply metaphysical explanation for universe in terms of a creative mind. - 38Strengths of Understanding Religious Language as Cognitive-Makes clear factual claims that can be examined by anyone.
-Most believers are cognitivists.
-Believers are committed to religion because they see their beliefs as factual and not as non-cognitive bliks. - 39Strengths of Understanding Religious Language as Non-Cognitive-Avoids view that religious language can be scientific -avoids verificationist and falsificationist challenges.
-Reflects the disctinctive views and committments of religious people (their bliks).
-Acknowledges religious language is one of many different ways in which language can be meaningful. - 40Religious Language as Analogical (Aquinas)-Religious language is neither univocal or equivocal- it is analogical.
-God is different from the universe but God is the creator SO there must be a causal relationship between universe and God.
-Analogy of attribution- talking about human attributions of goodness (eg. love), God has what it takes to produce these qualities within humans.
-We can make downwards analogy to faithfullness of a dog so we can make upwards analogy to faithfullness of God. - 41Strengths of using Analogical Language about God.-Avoids using univocal language about God so avoids trating God as a thing amongst other things.
-Avoids speaking anthropomorphically about God.
-Useful in pushing words beyond normal meaning -eg, talking about religious experiences.
-Analogy is cognitive- based on human experiences so allows 'God-talk' to be meaningful. - 42Weaknesses of Analogy-Works only if terms being compared are known but we do not know about God.
-If we say that God has what it takes to produce good qualities in humans, have to admit that God has what it takes to produce evil qualities too (although Aquinas denies evil exists). - 43Religious Language & The Via Negativa-Kataphatic theology= says positive things about God.
-Apophatic Theology= emphasises belief that God is beyond all description.
-Used by Otto and Stace- religious experiences of transcendent and ineffable God.
-Literal language cannot describe such a being so all positive terms about God must be denied.
-Mainmonides- 12th century- language about God can only say what God is not. A person who does not know what a ship is can come to that understanding by finding out what it is not. - 44Strengths of the Via Negativa-Avoids seeing God as a thing among other things.
-Focuses on God's transcendence so avoids anthrpomorphism when talking about God.
-Focus of VN supported by mystical tradition of numinous and the wholly other. - 45Weaknesses of the Via Negativa-Brian Davies- listening to someone saying what a ship is not is just as likely to lead you to think of a wardrobe as a ship.
-In Flew's Parable of Gardener- this takes the same approach as the VN. According to Flew, all that does is kill the idea of the gardener/God by the death of 1000 qualifications.
-Mystical experiences may support the VN but how do we know that such experiences are of God as opposed to being produced by the brain?
-Is it possible to worship a God who is described only in negative ways? - 46Religious Language as Symbolic (Tillich)Main features of Tillich's account include;
-Symbols point to a reality beyond themselves.
-They 'participate' in the power to which they point.
-They open up levels of reality which would otherwise be closed to us.
-Open up levels of the soul which correspond to those realities.
-Symbols cannot be produced intentionally -they grow out of human unconscious.
-Symbols produced and die within cultural context. - 47Religious Language as Symbolic Analysis-God is not a being but a 'Being itself'- God is our ultimate concern.
Symbols are self transcending,
meaning that they point to a higher/greater reality. Symbloic language, according to Tillich, is the only kind of language that can express this self transcending quality.
Religious symbolism does not give us factual information about another world or supernatural realm -it shows profound religious significance of features within this world.
'God is love' = 'God' becomes a name we give to the reality revealed by love in this world. - 48Strengths of Symbollic Language-Can relate religious language to ordinary, everyday experience, such as the experience of love.
-Allows us to make one cognitive claim; that God is 'Being itself'.
-Reflects what is known through religious experiences- tells us the meaning of our lives. - 49Weaknesses of Symbolic Language-Hick questions whether Tillich's view that a symbol 'participates' in the reality to which it points mean anything at all.
-Hick rejects Tillich's idea that complex theological claims such as 'God does not depend for his existence upon any reality other than himself' come from the unconscious mind.
They surely come from the conscious theological reasoning -the same is true of the kind of theology expressed in the Cosmological and Design arguments for the existence of God.
-Many Christians do not share Tillich's views that God is 'Being-itself', preferring to see God as a transcendent being who is the ground for all existence (as with Aquinas).
Information
- Description
- Flashcards on Religious Language (A level), created by Olivia Egan on 28/05/2019.
- Created by
- Olivia Egan
- Views
- 19
- Rating