Religious language 1-cognitive Flashcards
(28 cards)
What are the inherent problems of religious language
God cannot be understood by humans
He has attributes we find difficult to describe e.g. existing out of time
Terms of infinity carry little weight to humans
Religious texts are hard to understand unless you are part if the religion already-emphasis on metaphysical language and concepts
You need prior knowledge/sitz im lebem to understand-1st century myths may make little sense to 21st century people
Religous claims about literal truth-cannot be verified or falsified
What is the insider/outsider problem and which scholar proposed a resolution
Difficulties encountered when people engage with cultures other than their own
Ninian Smart-Came up with phenomenology , which is based on studying external and observable features.
Methodical agnosticism-Putting aside your own beliefs and approaching it without bias
What is cognitive vs non-cognitive language
Cognitive-There are things that can be known-“truth-apt”
Non-cognitive-There are things that are meaningful that arent neccessarily true or false
What was A.J. ayers book called
Language, Truth and Logic (1936)
What was the vienna circle
Met in vienna in the 20s and the 30s, led by Mortiz Schlick, inspired by Wittgenstein, Russel and others
Fans of logical positives
What are the only two types of statements that can be true according to logical positivism
Analytic statements-True by definition-e.g. maths or tautologies
Synthetic statements-Proved by evidence or observation of the physical world
Anything else is meaningless
How does David Hume refer to statements that are neither analytic or synthetic
It can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion
What are the criticism of the verification principles
It fails it’s own test-cannnot be verified
Some scientific claims cannot be verified-impossible to make any generalised statement
Only statements about the present can be verified-no history
No ethical claims can be verified
What is eschatological verification, and the counterargument
Religious truths are still verifiable because we will find out when we die
However, there is no proof of consciousness after death
Hicks idea-parable of the celestial city
What is wisdom’s parable of the gardener and who argues using it
John Wisdom-Flew
A man believes in the existence of a invisible, untouchable, silent etc gardener, and will accept no evidence to the contrary
“dies the death of a thousand qualifications”
What was Ayer’s modification to the verification principle
Splits it into two types
Strong VP-We can conclusively demonstrate it
Weak VP-Empirical evidence suggests it is probably correct, but we cannot prove it e.g. history
Also distinguishes between verification in practice-e.g. the sky is blue
and principle-there are aliens in the universe-We know what to do, but cannot actually do it
What was Antony Flew’s major article called
Theology and Falsification
What is the falsification principle
For a statement to be verifiable, there must be a way in which it could be disproven-It has to both assert and rule something out
There is no way the man could ever accept that the gardener did not really exist
What is Richard Hare’s criticism of falsification
Bliks-Worldviews, some sane and some insane, based on unfalsifiable convictions-Still have meaning to people
e.g. man convinced all professors are evil, will not accept any evidence to the contrary
What is Basil Mitchell’s criticism of falsificationn
The partisan and the stranger
Partisan meets a man who tells him to trust him-Sometimes he helps the man, and sometimes acts against him, but the man carries on trusting
Proves that religious language can be cognitive-based on trust rather than truth
What is Swinburne’s criticism of falsification
Toys in the cupboard
Toys start dancing unless under observation-This is unfalsifiable but still meaningful
Relation to quantum mechanics?
What is Wittgensteins first work called
Tractatus Logico Philosphicus-1921
What was the final proposition of tractatus
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent
Who writes on Analogy and where
Aquinas-summa theologica
Ian Ramsey-Religious Language 1957
What is Via Negativa
You can only define god by saying what he isnt
Univocal vs Equivocal language
Univocal-The word has one meaning
Equivocal-The word has mutliple meanings
What two kinds of analogy does aquinas write about and what are they
Analogy of attribution-Cause and effect- A town may be called healthy because it makes the people within it so
God is Wise-God is the source of all wisdom in the universe
Analogy of proportion-We speak of a loyal dog-it is not loyal in the same way a human is loyal, but there are similarities
God is loving, like a human is, but his love is greater.
What is the point of using analogical language to describe god, according to aquinas
It avoids using univocal or equivocal words to describe god, which fall into the trap of trying to comprehend and incomprehensible being
What was Ian Ramsey’s job
Bishop of Durham
