Hare’s Blick Flashcards
(7 cards)
Who was R.M Hare?
A British Philosopher
What approach did Hare take to religious language and what his idea of Bliks?
One response to the challenge of religious language is the non-cognitive approach, presented by R.M. Hare, who argues that religious language expresses deeply held “bliks”—non-falsifiable worldviews that still shape behaviour
What was Hare’s parable of the lunatic man?
-Hare illustrates this with the parable of the lunatic man, who believes university professors are trying to kill him
-Even when presented with strong evidence to the contrary, the student refuses to change his belief
-Hare uses this to show that, like the student, religious believers hold bliks that are not open to empirical testing but still hold deep personal significance
-While these statements may not be verifiable or falsifiable, they remain meaningful because they shape the believer’s entire outlook on life
How does Hare’s blik idea respond to Flew’s falsification principle?
This responds to Flew’s falsification principle, which claims religious language is meaningless because it cannot be falsified, by showing that language doesn’t need to be verifiable to be significant
What is a strength of Hare’s blik?
-Hare’s theory of bliks provides a compelling explanation for why different religions can hold contradictory beliefs without necessarily being irrational
-He argues that religious language expresses “non-cognitive bliks,” meaning deeply held worldviews that are not based on empirical evidence but still shape how people interpret reality
-For example, Christianity affirms Jesus’ divinity while Islam denies it, yet both views are meaningful within their own frameworks
-Hare’s concept shows that these are not truth-claims in the scientific sense, but reflections of how people see the world
What is a quote from Hare about bliks?
-As he explains, bliks are “ways of viewing the world which are not held as subject to falsification”
-This also clarifies why religious believers are not easily persuaded by contradictory evidence: they see all evidence through the lens of their blik
-Within this structure, a believer might interpret suffering as a test from God, while a sceptic sees random misfortune
-Hare’s approach does not attempt to prove religion true or false, but affirms its personal meaning and explanatory power for those who hold it.
What is a weakness of Hare’s approach?
-A key weakness of Hare’s theory of bliks is highlighted by Antony Flew, who argues that religious believers do not view their statements as mere personal perspectives but as genuine truth claims
-Flew famously said that religious assertions “die the death of a thousand qualifications” when they are endlessly reinterpreted to avoid falsification, becoming effectively meaningless
-He believed that if a person refuses to state what would count as evidence against their belief, then it is not really a factual claim
-This challenges Hare’s view that religious language is non-cognitive, because believers often insist that claims like “God exists” are objectively true
-Flew’s criticism shows that Hare’s theory, while useful in explaining why people hold on to beliefs, may ultimately fail to capture the truth-claiming nature of religious language, which many believers see as central to their faith
