Logical Positivism
- Created by: mariam26
- Created on: 14-04-21 03:28
View mindmap
- The search for scientific explanations of the universe
- Logical Positivism
- Verification Theory
- Logical Positivists determine whether a sentence is meaningful or not (helps a philosophers job become more important)
- There are 2 types of meaningful proposition
- Tautologies
- one part of a sentence is repeated but in a different way (true by definition and a priori) e.g maths
- Empirically Verifiable Propositions
- a sentence where we can determine the truth of it by observation (sense experience)
- Tautologies
- The verification principle
- a sentence is meaningful if and only if it is a tautology or is verifiable by sense experience
- A.J. Ayer
- Ayer distinguished 2 types of verification
- Strong verification
- The truth of a statement can be conclusively/100% established in experience
- Weak verification
- It is sufficient to state what observation would make a statement probable
- does not have to be true just more probable than not
- It is sufficient to state what observation would make a statement probable
- Strong verification
- Ayer believed that strong verification is impossible and supported weak verification
- Ayer distinguished 2 types of verification
- Criticisms and Responses to Ayer
- D.Z. Phillips
- Scientific and religious sentences cannot be compared
- The search for God is a religious quest rather than a scientific one
- Scientific and religious sentences cannot be compared
- Foundationalism
- The belief that all knowledge is based on some unarguable, self-evident truth
- Vincent Brummer
- To treat sentences of faith as if they were scientific sentences is to commit an error of understanding
- D.Z. Phillips
- The Vienna Circle
- Verification Theory
- In the 20th Century people were looking for more scientific explanations of existence
- This was after Hegel’s positive outlook on existence (the universe is in a constant state of improvement) was proven to be wrong with events like WW1
- Logical Positivism
Comments
No comments have yet been made