To what extent do language games provide a suitable way of resolving the problems of religious language?

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  • Created by: blombus
  • Created on: 14-05-21 10:50
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  • To what extent do language games provide a suitable way of resolving the problems of religious language?
    • Religious language doesn't work the same way as ordinary language
      • Religious language functions as a technical subcategory of language
        • It requires specific contextual knowledge
        • Explaining religious concepts to someone with no knowledge or appreciation of the religion is like speaking two different languages
      • It could be seen as nonsensical to the rest of the world
        • To those who don't know the proper context
        • Outsiders not understanding the language doesn't mean it's universally meaningless or wrong
      • Wittgenstein explained that deep language understanding requires more than vocabulary acquisition
        • You need to know the context and environment surrounding the language
          • This goes double for specialised and technical language
            • Religious language can be seen as a specialised type of language
      • Why should it be any different?
      • It could thus be seen as potentially invalid or meaningless
    • It doesn't pertain to our understanding of the world
      • That's only if you are attempting to examine religious claims under an empirical rubric
        • Language explains that the rules of talking about the physical world and the metaphysical world don't have to align
          • Football and cricket use different rules because they're completely different games
            • You wouldn't try to apply the offside rule of football in the middle of cricket
          • Religious believers would mostly likely disagree with the implication that they are not discussing the physical as well
            • In this way, language games can't be seen to solve the issue
        • DIfferent language games play by different rules
          • Football and cricket use different rules because they're completely different games
            • You wouldn't try to apply the offside rule of football in the middle of cricket
        • Stephen Jay Gould's view of NOMA
          • Non-overlapping magesteria
          • Religious and science aren't incompatible, they just discuss different things
            • Very similar to what language games imply for religious language
            • Doesn't solve the issue that religious language can be seen to be making empirical claims about the physical
      • Religious language can be seen as a nonsense
      • Religious languange's propositions have no place in the 'real' world

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