Explain the Verification Principle and the Challenges (Plan)
Explain the verification principle and the challenges (consider whether Ayer’s response to the verification principle is sufficient) – Explain the falsification principle and challenges
The Verification Principle was founded by the logical positivist movement which was highly supported by the philosophical group the Vienna Circle. They created a principle that suggested that a statement was only ever meaningful if it was able to be verified by an actual personal experience. There was an exception to this principle which was a tautology; a statement which is logically true by definition (e.g. a triangle has three sides). For this reason they denied any statements that concerned metaphysics or religion. * Too rigid – can’t make statements about history * Scientific laws become meaningless – such as gravity’s consistency on Earth * Swinburne: universal statements can’t be verified – such as all ravens are black * Expressions of views on topics such as Art are meaningless
* States that we do not conclusively prove something by a direct observation, in order for a statement to be meaningful we need to suggest how it could possibly be verified – ‘there are mountains on the far side of the moon’, if we were to orbit the moon we’d be able to check upon the truthfulness of the statement * Thought to be an improvement of the strong and strict verification principle: applying the principle only to cases that we can directly verify by experience would be limiting, allows us to make statements about the past and emotions and predictions in science * John Hick questioned whether the verification principle renders religious statements meaningless – two travellers down a long road and arguing whether it leads to a celestial city, just as with God and heaven, the walkers can verify at the end of the journey (eschatological verification) * The verification principle is unverifiable in itself
* A principle for assessing whether statements
The Verification Principle was founded by the logical positivist movement which was highly supported by the philosophical group the Vienna Circle. They created a principle that suggested that a statement was only ever meaningful if it was able to be verified by an actual personal experience. There was an exception to this principle which was a tautology; a statement which is logically true by definition (e.g. a triangle has three sides). For this reason they denied any statements that concerned metaphysics or religion. * Too rigid – can’t make statements about history * Scientific laws become meaningless – such as gravity’s consistency on Earth * Swinburne: universal statements can’t be verified – such as all ravens are black * Expressions of views on topics such as Art are meaningless
* States that we do not conclusively prove something by a direct observation, in order for a statement to be meaningful we need to suggest how it could possibly be verified – ‘there are mountains on the far side of the moon’, if we were to orbit the moon we’d be able to check upon the truthfulness of the statement * Thought to be an improvement of the strong and strict verification principle: applying the principle only to cases that we can directly verify by experience would be limiting, allows us to make statements about the past and emotions and predictions in science * John Hick questioned whether the verification principle renders religious statements meaningless – two travellers down a long road and arguing whether it leads to a celestial city, just as with God and heaven, the walkers can verify at the end of the journey (eschatological verification) * The verification principle is unverifiable in itself
* A principle for assessing whether statements