Lesson 1: Logical Theism
The verification principle is the idea that a meaning of a statement is in the method of
its verification – so that any statement which cannot be verified is meaningless.
- This came from logical theism – logical positivists attacked the meaningfulness
of religious language
- The logical positivists developed from the work of a group of philosophers
known as the Vienna Circle
- The Vienna Circle was founded because of discussions in 1907 and was a group
of philosophers who met around Vienna university.
- In 1922 Moritz Schlick became the leader, they wanted to move away from
saying God is the cause for everything and wanted to look at more scientific
answers.
The Vienna Circle
- They followed the thinking of Comte and believed that “theological
interpretations of events and experiences belong to a time when science had
not been totally mastered”
- They applied the principles of science and mathematics to language, and they
argued that language had to be based on experience
- For a statement to be meaningful it had to be verified by our senses – empirical
testing
- They took up Comte’s view that theological thinking was outdated and they held
that empirical evidence was what we could understand meaning
- They focused on how we use language to seek knowledge.
Logical Positivists accepted 2 forms of verifiable language:
1) Analytic statements: true by definition, a priori statements which are true as
they contain their own verification. Language that is tautology. “Tautology:
something is the case that cannot be confirmed or falsified by any observation.
They are priori and true by definition. E.g. a circle is round.
2) Synthetic statements: can be verified or falsified by subjecting them to
empirical testing. A prosteriori statements. You can prove if things are true or
false e.g. swans are green, this can be proven false.
Summary
- Logical positivism developed from the work of the Vienna Circle
- Logical positivists developed the verification principle
- So logical positivism is what verificationism is most closely related to
- They held the view that “If you cannot demonstate with sense observations how
a statement is true then it is factually meaningless”
- Moritz Schlick said: “The meaning of proposition is the method of verification”
, Verificationists believe that any statement that cannot be proved to be true or false is
meaningless, in the context of ethical statements and religious language they would
be considered meaningless as they are neither true nor false. They are subjective and
so cannot be empirically tested.
A.J Ayer
One philosopher who attempted to reinterpret the verification principle, he was
a logical positivist. Not part of the Vienna circle but his book “Language, truth
and logic” is the most famous description of logical positivism.
His theory was an attempt to hold to the verification principle in light of the
problems to it
Ayer was concerned with ALL religious language – not just talk of God but other
concepts like the afterlife which cannot be verified either, He said that talk of
the soul was meaningless.
His theory was “verifiable in principle”, the idea that it is enough to just be able
to know what sense experience would make the statement probable, so it is the
steps taken to verify a proposition that make it meaningful.
SO, he said that if it was possible to know what would, in principle, verify a
statement then that statement would be meaningful.
Ayers notion of verifiable in principle allows for scientific and historical
statements to be meaningful.
HOWEVER, this does not help- as in theory virtually any statement could be
verifiable. Ayers notion does not allow religion and ethics to be meaningful as
they cannot be analysed in empirical terms. He said religious experiences are
not verifiable so rejected them.
Strong and weak verification A.J Ayer.
In his book he said “a proposition is said to be verifiable, in the strong sense of
the term if, and only if, its truth could be conclusively established in experience.
But it is verifiable, in the weak sense, if it is possible for experience to render it
probable”
So Strong verification: can be applied to anything that can be verified
conclusively by observation and experience
Weak verification: refers to statements that can be shown to be probable by
observation and experience.
Ayer says that strong verification is impossible as we can never conclusively make a
statement about the world as our senses can be mistaken. Historical statements and
conclusions of science would be unverifiable. Therefore, verificationism should be
used in the weak sense.
The verification principle is the idea that a meaning of a statement is in the method of
its verification – so that any statement which cannot be verified is meaningless.
- This came from logical theism – logical positivists attacked the meaningfulness
of religious language
- The logical positivists developed from the work of a group of philosophers
known as the Vienna Circle
- The Vienna Circle was founded because of discussions in 1907 and was a group
of philosophers who met around Vienna university.
- In 1922 Moritz Schlick became the leader, they wanted to move away from
saying God is the cause for everything and wanted to look at more scientific
answers.
The Vienna Circle
- They followed the thinking of Comte and believed that “theological
interpretations of events and experiences belong to a time when science had
not been totally mastered”
- They applied the principles of science and mathematics to language, and they
argued that language had to be based on experience
- For a statement to be meaningful it had to be verified by our senses – empirical
testing
- They took up Comte’s view that theological thinking was outdated and they held
that empirical evidence was what we could understand meaning
- They focused on how we use language to seek knowledge.
Logical Positivists accepted 2 forms of verifiable language:
1) Analytic statements: true by definition, a priori statements which are true as
they contain their own verification. Language that is tautology. “Tautology:
something is the case that cannot be confirmed or falsified by any observation.
They are priori and true by definition. E.g. a circle is round.
2) Synthetic statements: can be verified or falsified by subjecting them to
empirical testing. A prosteriori statements. You can prove if things are true or
false e.g. swans are green, this can be proven false.
Summary
- Logical positivism developed from the work of the Vienna Circle
- Logical positivists developed the verification principle
- So logical positivism is what verificationism is most closely related to
- They held the view that “If you cannot demonstate with sense observations how
a statement is true then it is factually meaningless”
- Moritz Schlick said: “The meaning of proposition is the method of verification”
, Verificationists believe that any statement that cannot be proved to be true or false is
meaningless, in the context of ethical statements and religious language they would
be considered meaningless as they are neither true nor false. They are subjective and
so cannot be empirically tested.
A.J Ayer
One philosopher who attempted to reinterpret the verification principle, he was
a logical positivist. Not part of the Vienna circle but his book “Language, truth
and logic” is the most famous description of logical positivism.
His theory was an attempt to hold to the verification principle in light of the
problems to it
Ayer was concerned with ALL religious language – not just talk of God but other
concepts like the afterlife which cannot be verified either, He said that talk of
the soul was meaningless.
His theory was “verifiable in principle”, the idea that it is enough to just be able
to know what sense experience would make the statement probable, so it is the
steps taken to verify a proposition that make it meaningful.
SO, he said that if it was possible to know what would, in principle, verify a
statement then that statement would be meaningful.
Ayers notion of verifiable in principle allows for scientific and historical
statements to be meaningful.
HOWEVER, this does not help- as in theory virtually any statement could be
verifiable. Ayers notion does not allow religion and ethics to be meaningful as
they cannot be analysed in empirical terms. He said religious experiences are
not verifiable so rejected them.
Strong and weak verification A.J Ayer.
In his book he said “a proposition is said to be verifiable, in the strong sense of
the term if, and only if, its truth could be conclusively established in experience.
But it is verifiable, in the weak sense, if it is possible for experience to render it
probable”
So Strong verification: can be applied to anything that can be verified
conclusively by observation and experience
Weak verification: refers to statements that can be shown to be probable by
observation and experience.
Ayer says that strong verification is impossible as we can never conclusively make a
statement about the world as our senses can be mistaken. Historical statements and
conclusions of science would be unverifiable. Therefore, verificationism should be
used in the weak sense.
