RL: FLASIFICATION PRINCIPLE Flashcards
What is the definition of the falsification principle?
Asserting whether statements are genuine scientific assertions by considering whether any evidence could ever disprove them.
What does the principle suggest about religious language and believers?
There is no possible state of affairs that could ever lead to a religious statement being proven false.
Who were the Vienna Circle? What year?
1944.
Purists who investigated religious language.
Who were the two main philosophers of the Vienna Circle?
Anthony Flew and Karl Popper.
What does the Falsification Principle accept about statements?
That a statement is verifiable if it is known what empirical evidence could count against it.
What did the Falsification Principle conclude?
That religious language is meaningless.
What did Flew argue about Christians?
They hold to their belief that God is good, whatever evidence is offered against it.
What does Popper state about science and falsification?
“The scientific status of a theory of its fallibility, or refutability, or testability.”
What parable does Flew use to support his statement?
The Parable of the Gardner.
What evaluation does Hare offer?
Talks about ‘bliks’ - way of seeing and interpreting the world and how they are not falsifiable.
What does the Believer in the Parable of the Gardner believe?
Believer believes that Gardner is invisible and intangible.
What does the sceptic think about the believer?
The Believer’s original assertion has no meaning.
What does Flew state about the assertion “there is a Gardner”?
Doesn’t say anything if there is nothing that would count for or against the truth.
What does Flew state about religious statements having little value?
The “death of a thousand qualifications.”
What analogy does Swinburne use to criticise?
The analogy of the toys and cupboard ti show that one cannot prove that the toys do not leave the cupboard when unsupervised.
