7330662
| Question | Answer |
| Which group in the 1920s inspired the verification principle? | The Vienna Circle |
| What kind of people were the Vienna Circle? | logical positivists |
| Which philosopher did the Vienna Circle surround? | Moritz Schlick |
| What was the central proposition of the logical positivists? | something can only have meaning if it can be verified empirically |
| WHat did the logical positivists come up with? | verification principle |
| What is the verification principle? | a statement is only meaningful if it can be verified by an actual experience or is a tautology |
| What is a tautology? | a logical statement that we can know to be true by definition |
| What classifies as a meaningful statement for a follower of the verification principle? | a statement is only meaningful if it can be analytically or synthetically verifiable |
| What is an analytic statement? | a statement that is true by definition, tends to be logic/math, often called a tautology e.g. bachelors are unmarried men |
| What is a synthetic statement? | statements that can be verified by testing or using experience, tend to be scientific, e.g. its raining some synthetic statements are more verifiable than others |
| WHat is a meaningless statement? | neither analytic nor synthetic e.g. he is a good person, no way of testing what good means. logical positivists say all ethical metaphysical religious statements are meaningless |
| Who was A J Ayer and what did he do? | a British philosopher who introduced logical positivism in the UK |
| What two major contributions to logical positivism? | 1. a distinction between verification in principle and in practice e.g. even though we cannot verifiy that all metals explained when heated but we know the parameters for testing it so still meaningful 2. distinction between weak and strong verification |
| What does Ayer argue about sentenced about God? | they are meaningless, both denying and accepting God is meaningless |
| How does Ayer classify if statements are meaningful? | 1. if they are analytic (a priori) 2. if they are synthetic (a posteriori) |
| What is weak verification? | something can be verified if you can state the observations would be needed to verify the statement. e.g. mountains on the far side of the moon (1935 when could not see far side). Therefore statement is meaningful |
| What is strong verification? | points out strong verification is impossible, can never conclusively make any statement about the world as statements can be mistaken. We cannot get out of our minds to check our perception is correct |
| What are the strengths of the verification principle? | saves wasted time discussing God, supports design argument for God's existence as based on a posteriori experience, supports the claim of an afterlife and religious experience |
| What can be said to criticise the VP based on its evidence? | there is no evidence to support the principle, so it doesn't meet its own criteria |
| What can be said about this and metaphysical terms? | there are many terms that are metaphysical (love) which do not have meaning for the users and the effects of these metaphysical terms can be seen through their actions |
| What does Vardy say about this? | argues the fact you cant verify it doesn't mean its meaningless |
| What can be said about this and the modern day science? | not consistent with modern science as many things such as atoms or forces are not verifiable |
| What does Keith Ward say about the verification principle? | reasoned that Gods existence can be verified since God himself can verify his own existence |
| What can be said about weak verification? | technically you can verify anything |
| What does Richard Holder say about the verification principle? | Gives example of polar bears, VP would state all polar bears are white, therefore non white objects cannot be polar bears. V logic suggests that a brown chimpanzee proves all polar bears are white |
| What does Karl Popper say about the verification principle? | simply argues we cannot scientifically verify everything |
Want to create your own Flashcards for free with GoConqr? Learn more.