1
Q
what is cognitive language?
A
- deals with factual statements that can be proved to be either true or false
- empirically provable and contain meaningful factual content.
2
Q
what is non-cognitive language?
A
- language used to convey emotions, attitudes, or subjective interpretations rather than objective knowledge
- does not express factual beliefs
3
Q
What is a realist?
A
- for a statement to be true it must refer to reality and be within our sense experience.
- use correspondence theory : something is meaningful , if it can correspond to our reality
4
Q
What is anti-realist?
A
- rejects objectivity and emphasies the subjectivity of language
- uses coherence theory : a statement is meaningful and true through its relationship to other ideas
-does not need to relate to immediate reality - meaning is shaped by our perception .
5
Q
Evaluate cogntivie approach and non cogntive approach.
A
- God is transcendent and wholly other using our language to describe and is inadequate because we cannot have direct experience of him.
- non-cognitive: issues of havng to prove our language. We do not have direct experience of God and our language about God can be used in a more symbolic way.
6
Q
what is the religious language debate?
A
- logial positivists who claim our language is limited to things which are within our realm of reality
- vs
- religious believers who claim God is within our reality so we can speak meaningfully about him
7
Q
univocal vs equivocal
A
univocal: word was exactly same meaning at all times .e.g cow
- equivocal : same word is used with 2 completely different meanings e.g. nights , bat.
8
Q
what is the via negativa?
Apopathic Way
A
- non cogntivie approach which only speaks about God in “negative terms and what God is not.
- emphasises God’s transcendence which limits our understanding of his qualities - Plotinus
9
Q
what is Pseudo Dionysious’ views ?
A
- 6th Century Christian mystic
- believes that using positive language limits God to our understadning of those words and runs the risk of anthromorphising God.
- God is “ beyond all being and knowledge”
- Instead, he argued that people should recognised God as a mystery as he is the perfect and unique cause of all things”
- People who are genuinely seeking God to understand God should stop describing God is positive terms and just allow Gid to soeak.
10
Q
What is Moses Maismonides’ views?
A
- Jewish philosopher who strongly supported the via negativa
- He believed that human language is useful in definting, explaining and distinguishing in the finite world
- Those who state attributes of God don’t first lack sufficent knowledge concerning the creator , but they also unconsciously lose their belief in God.
- uses Analogy of a ship.
- ” it is clear that the tenth person has arrived”.
11
Q
Davies critique of Maimonides.
A
- saying what soemthing is not gives no indication of what is actually is.
- ” It is simply unreasonable to say that someone who has all negations mentioned in it “ has almost arrived at the correct notion of a ship. Could be a warfare.
- doesn’t work with someone who began by know nothing about God. Process of elimiinating requires possibilities.
12
Q
Give the strengths of the Via Negativa
A
- The Via Negativa is honest about the limits of our language but also acknowledges the fact
that we still have a desire to talk about God and attempts to find a way of doing that. - This way of speaking about God does eliminate the possibility of limiting him to our
understanding of particular ideas. - It is a way of conveying the essential otherness and mystery of God and underlines that he
is not like us. Avoids anthropomorphising God. - It is a means by which we can say something about God that is literally true and does not
need interpretation.
see document for better evaluations
13
Q
Give the weaknesses of Via Negativa.
A
- Saying what something is not does not actually help us to understand what something actually is! Flew
argues that negatives amount to nothing- we are told nothing about God. - It confuses atheism and theism since to say that God can only be spoken of in negative terms may means
denying God’s existence altogether, because ‘existence’ itself is a human concept. - Davies- In order to discover what something is through a process of elimination we need to know what
the possibilities are. If we have had no experience of a certain thing and don’t know what it is, we will be
unable to discover what that thing is through elimination. (It may work for someone who believes) - Renders all biblical texts meaningless- The Bible does not talk about God in negative terms
14
Q
Outline additional scholarly views on via negativa.
A
FOR:
- Hart supports the via negativa as a way to grasp the ineffability of God. He argues that the via negativa is essential for articulating the divine mystery.
Kearney: : supports the via negativa within a framework of “anatheism,” which emphasizes the need to re-engage with the divine through a negation of conventional understandings.
15
Q
Outline additional scholars who critcise the via negativa
A
- Dawkins criticizes the via negativa as a way to avoid addressing the real, empirical problems associated with religion
- this may be a way of subverting substantive critique by emphasizing the unknowability of God.
16
Q
Outlin Aquinas’ approach of analogy.
A
- believes the use of language automatically limits or anthromorphises God.
- He believes that, unlike the Via Negativa, we could make positive decisions about God if we understand that the words we have an analogical rather than a literal interpretation
- if we want to know what God is like , look at what God has made.
- ## “Analogies are proportional similarities which also ackniwslsdg e disimilar features”.
17
Q
Give the analogies Aquinas proposes
A
- analogy of attribution
- analogy of proportion.
18
Q
what is the analogy of attribution?
A
- atrtribute the world to God and therefore , as God’s creation , we reflect his attributes.
- uses the analogy of a Bull to demonstrate this sisnilar to how a Bull’s health is determined by examining its urine , humans can examine God’s creation and see a reflection of his qualtiies in this.
- th distinctiojn is that the bull’s health is not intrinsically within the urine similar to how God’s qualties are merely refelcted and not encompassing of his true nature
19
Q
What is the analogy of proportion?
A
- although we possess qualtiies like those of God , we posssess those qualities in a lesser proportion to God.
- Hick offered the examples of upwards analogy, for instance speaking of a dog’s faithfulness and then going upwards to human faith in God.
- Thus we can now add to our statement that God has qualities analogous to ours that he has them in greater proportion. So God’s love/knowledge/power is like ours but proportionally greater.
20
Q
What is Ian Ramsey - Models and Qualifiers Aproach.
A
- A model is an analogy that helps us to express something about God, such as ‘God is good’.
. model = good
. We know what good means in human terms and when we apply it to God, it gives us a model to
understand the goodness of God.
. In the same way we can qualify the model to improve our understanding by putting God’s
attributions on a greater level, for instance by adding that qualifier that God is infinitely good.
. In this way we can think of God’s goodness in a deeper and more meaningful way.
21
Q
Evaluate the strengths of analogy:
A
- avoids anthromorphising God.
CA: it does not bring us any closer to understanding God. - inductive leap we do not know what God is due to his transcendence - Analogies are relatable; easier to understand as the qualities match those of humanity.
- we can talk positively about God and his qualities.
- Aquinas never claimed that we can describe the nature of God - analogical language allows us to talk about God and avoids the problem of anthromorphising God.
see document for more
22
Q
Evaluate the criticisms of using analogy
A
- The analogy of attribution can be used to prove that God is bad. All we need to do is to use the same form
of argument that suggests that God has whatever it takes to produce badness in humans. (Aquinas covers
this by arguing that evil in humans is not a thing in itself; rather, as Augustine argues, it is an absence of
good.) - In order for it to work, the language we use to describe God has to be in part univocal and cognitive, based
on factual observation, rather than non cognitive. There must be something in common between God’s
goodness and human goodness, otherwise we can’t understand the analogy. But if goodness in God and
humans is understood univocally after all, then we have gained nothing. - Aquinas believes that God was ultimately responsible for the creation of the Earth and that humans were created in the likeness of God. If we don’t accept Aquinas’ assumptions, we don’t have to accept the idea
that we can work out what God is like by examining a creation that may or may not be his. (Darwin,
Dawkins) - Aquinas picks some qualities (i.e. good qualities) but not others. Does God possess evil qualities as well?
Again this can be countered by Aquinas’s view on evil. - Swinburne - Aquinas has produced an unecessary theory. He claims that we can speak of
see document for more
23
Q
Describe Tillich’s theory of symbolic language
what example does he use
A
- RL is symbolic not literal. He said that symbols are something that we can all participate in
- Religious symbols are not arbitrarily invented. They grow out of the culture and collective unconscious minds of a religious tradition.
- Tillich uses the illustration of a national flag. It isn’t a random sign pointing to a country. It is part of what it points to. It participates in the power and dignity of a nation. Seeing a flag mentally connects a citizen to their country.
- the function of religious symbols is to spiritually connect people to the religious dimension of reality, and understand the nature of God.
24
Q
In Tillich’s view, what is the difference between sign and symbol?
A
- a sign simply provides information.
- Symbols go beyond that to express what a believer feels about what the symbol conveys.
- They are non-cognitive and go beyond out usual understanding.
- ” transcends the capacity of any finite reality to express it directly”
25
Outline the elements within Tillich's theory of participation
| what Tillich believes constitutes a symbol.
**1. Pointing to something beyond itself**. The crucifix ‘points’ to Christianity, religious language ‘points’ to religion or God.
**2.Participation**: symbolic language participates in the reaiity to which it points". The crucifix is part of Christianity, it doesn’t just point to it. Religious language participates in the being of God, or in being-itself.
**3.Reality:** symbols reveal a deeper meaning, they open up spiritual levels of reality that are otherwise closed to us.
**4.Soul:** Symbols open up the levels of dimensions of the soul that correspond to those levels of reality.
26
Give the strengths of religious language as symbolic.
| SL: BUDDHISM - SYMBOL OF THREEES , CYCLES ETC.
- can convey complex ideas such as the nature of God, creation or salvation allowing pePple to contemplate the divine without the limitations of precise definitions.
- Addresses the Ineffable Nature of God: provides a way to speak about God without confining the divine to human categories. Symbols allow believers to express aspects of God's nature without claiming to fully define or limit God.
- Tillich’s theory successfully captures the spiritual side of religious language as it evokes spiritual feelings, not cold factual descriptive beliefs.
- Facilitates Communal Identity: often bind communities together by providing shared meanings and experiences.
- The Bible uses symbolic language describing light as the religious way : Rudolf Buttman would argue that the stories are symbolic.
27
Give the weaknesses of religious language as symbolic
- Symbols are open to different interpretations. This means they lose their original meaning.
- Symbols become the focus on worship, for example relics of saints.
- They also become outdated like myths. For example, referring to God always as ‘Father’ is felt by some to be too patriarchal for the modern age; they suggest that descriptions such as ‘mother’ or ‘friend’ are more appropriate. Tillich observed: ‘it is necessary to rediscover the questions to which the Christian symbols are the answers in a way which is understandable to our time.’
- Paul Edwards: A symbol is intended to point the way to understanding something, it it is not possible for religious symbols to successfully point to something which is beyond human understanding, in a metaphysical reality. Symbols may give us the wrong insight about ultimate reality.
- restricted community, in order or people to have a shared understanding of what a symbol means they need to share a similar belief. - excludes atheists who may want to learn more about religion.
| see document
28
Give scholars that criticise Tillich's analogy
- **John Hick** criticised Tillich's idea of participating, calling it unclear - he argued that there is little different between a symbol and a sign. "Unfortunately Tillich does not fully define or clarify this central notion of participation"
- **William Alston** argues that symbols are meaningless because we don't know whether they're true or not. Must involve factual info.
- **Paul Edwards** argues that symbols are meaningless because they cannot be verified or falsified thanks to their subjective nature: "It doesn't convey any facts"
- **Macquarrie** is an advocate of religious symbology, but suggests that there is no difference between a symbol in a sign. In the phrase 'clouds are a sign of rain', for example, the clouds are both a sign and a symbol of rain - we can't differentiate between the two.
29
30
Describe Randall's theory of symbolic religious language.
- explicitly non-cognitve, accepting that symbols are completely non-cognitive
- Randall argues that symbols do four things:
1. Arouse emotions and motivate action
2. Stimulate cooperative action, bind community together
3. Communicate aspects of experience that cannot be expressed with literal language.
4. Evoke, foster and clarify human experience of the divine.
- "Religious symbols are commonly said to reveal some truth about experience.
31
What is a myth? Give scholar's views.
- a story or narrative that expresses a truth when it is not known for certain what actually happened. Myth uses symbolism and imagery to explain the unexplainable and to give insights into human experience
- Millar Burrows: “myth is a symbolic approximate expression of truth which the human mind cannot perceive sharply but can only glimpse vaguely, and therefore cannot adequately or accurately express”
- Hoffmann “myth alone can tell stories about primordial time because history relies on knowledge gleaned from records. No records of the beginning of time exist, except in mythology.
32
How does religious language relate to myth?
- the purpose of myths is to convey concepts which go beyond simple ideas of true or false, and to try express that which is “other worldly”.
- Religious language makes use of mythological terms to describe apocalyptic or eschatological events, such as second coming of Jesus -
“For the lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangels’ call and with the sound of the trumpet of God”
-
33
Evaluate Myths. Give Strengths.
- since religious language is anti-realist, it is not concerned with making true or false statement about objective reality. ( Use AS)
- have biblical basis, as when written, myths were a common means of conveying meaning. Thus if biblical stories are viewed in a mythical sense, they cannot require scientific or historical evidence.
- like a symbol, points to an objective truth and often to a higher reality.
- allows for abstract concepts to be better understood and more easily.
34
Give scholars in support of myths.
- S.W. Rogerson “because myths have their birth not in logic, but in intuition of transcendence, they are of value to traditions that seek to describe the action of the other worldly in the present world”
-Ninian Smart: “ myth is one of the 7 phenomena of religion (neutral way of studying religion allows for comparative study of religion)
-Momen “if one studies the common themes in the different mythologies of the world, one can find the basic rhythms by which all human beings true”
35
Give the weaknesses of using myth in religious language
- the value of mythical language and therefore its meaning will inevitably change as the values of societies change. As Emile Durkheim argues , where myths are constructs of society , no objective reality
- is there a manner with which one can distinguish between fiction and myth.
- individual interpretation.
- many people take the bible to be literal , although there may still be use of mythical language , it is often intentional and used to convey an abstract concept such as the grace of God. The Bible as a whole should not be deemed a collection mythical language and many beleivers do not see it as such.
36
Give scholars who critique myth.
-Bultmann: “can christian preaching expect modern man to accept the mythical view of the world as true? To do so would be both senseless and impossible”
- He rejected the mythological language of the new testament as unhelpful to the modern mind
- “Modern thoughts as we have inherited it brings with it criticisms of the new testament view of the world”
- Barbaur “ the (Bultmann) objects to myth because it tries to represent the divine in the objective categories of the physical world…scientifically untenable..and theologically inadequate; the transcendence cannot be represented in categories of the objective world”
37
What is logical positivism and how did it come about?
- a theory which campaigned for a reduction of all human knowlege to logical and scientific foundations - key figures including Schlick and Carnap (1920s).
- Argue a statement is only meaningful if it is either purely formal ( maths and logic) or capable of empirical verification.
- believe religous language to be meaningless as it can not be proven
38
Give the two types of language logical positivists do deem meaningful.
- analytic statements: knowledge is gained though logical reasoning. They are true by defintion.
- Synthetic statement: knwoledge can be proved true or false by some form of sense experience of experiment
| A= all bachelors are unmarried
B= John is a bachelor(this can be proved)
39
How did the verification principle come about?
- Hume proclaimed that if a statement did not contain abstract reasoning or experimental reasoning then it said nothing at all.
- This idea was developed by the Vienna Circle and philosophers like A.J. Ayer.
40
what is the verification principle?
- "the criterion which we use to test the genuiness of apparent statements of fact is the criterion of verifiability"
- asserts that a statement is meaningful only if it is either analytically true or empircally verifiable
- strong or weak verfication
41
Outline the difference betweeen strong verifcation and weak verification.
- strong verification requires that a statement be conclusively verifiable thorugh direct observation or experience to be meaningful.
- weak verification allows a statement to be meaninful it is possible, in principle together evidence or observations that coud support it even if it cant be conclusively verified. e.g events in history through histrocial documents
42
Give the strengths of verification principle
- Ayer: " no sentence which purports to describe the nature of a transcendent God can possess only literal significance."
- The VP rightly identifies some meaningless beliefs
- fits with the scientific understanding of reality.
- As empiricists, Locke and Hume argue that truth should be known via senses.#
- - povides us with a universal methodology for dgermining whether a statement is meaningful
- CA: error to apply the same method to apply science and religion this fails to recognise the distinction between these two areas. It also negates to mention that there are areas of science which do not use the VP e.g. dark matter. Brummer:
43
Give the weaknesses of the verification principle
- appears to make historical statements meaningless , since they are neither analytic not synthetic ( no internal logic and no direct sense experience)
CA: adapted with weak vverfication
- self-defeating (Davies)
| see document / essay plan
44
what is the falsification principle?
- A claim/belief is falsifiable if we can imagine what could prove it false, i.e., if it is incompatible with some conceivable state of affairs.
- karl popper , first proposed this, in order to apply a more scientific approach to determining the meaningfulness of statements
- he concluded that empiricism operates by falsification.
45
What was Flew's use of the falsification principle?
- He argues that falsifiability is a test of whether a claim asserts anything. He intends to explain what is required for making an "assertion" i.e. making a claim about reality.
- “to assert that such and such is the case is necessarily equivalent to denying that such and such is not the case”
- Claims about reality are therefore falsifiable.
- All our beliefs about reality could be false (empiricism is true)
- So, a belief that cannot be imagined to be false, cannot be about reality.
- Religious belief cannot be imagined to be false.
- Therefore, religious language fails to express beliefs about reality.
46
What does Flew's Parable of the Gardener show?
- The religious person claims to believe in a God, but in order to protect that belief from empirical testing they continually add qualifications to the belief, like the believer with the ' invisible gardner".
- Flew ends with the question: what is the difference between a world in which this gardener (God) exists, and a world in which it doesn’t?
- If belief in God is consistent with any possible discovery about reality, then its existence surely can make no difference to reality. It cannot be about reality. Religious language therefore ‘fails to assert’ anything. It is unfalsifiable and thus meaningless.
47
Evaluate falsification principle.
- see document
48
What is picture theory and who proposed it?
- Ludwig Wittgenstein: statements are meaningful if, and only if, they can be defined or pictured in the real world.
- “ the limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
49
Give the three features of the picture theory.
A statement must include these three features:
- names: labels which stand for natural objects.
- structure: this places the object in relation to one another
- logical form: names are related to each other in a way that is actually possible.
50
What made Wittgenstein change picture theory.
- his criteria for determining meaningfulness might have been too narrow.
- univocal
- realist
- correspondence
51
what were Ludwig’s key views on meaning
- ‘meaning of a word is it’s use in language’
- Wittgenstein emphasises that language is not a static system of words with fixed meanings but rather dynamic and contextual
52
What are language games?
- non -cognitive and anti realist
meaning depends on the rules and context of use in a particular “game” or context.
- just as a game has rules that dictate what is possible, language has rules that guide how words are used.
- the meaning of a word is not intrinsic but shaped by the rules of the language games
- used subconsciously as a form of life.
53
How is language games applied to religious language ?
- statements like ‘ God exists ‘ are not factual claims but expressions of faith where language is equivocal.
- It is immune to external criticism ( Phillips) as empirical and scientific ways of verifying statements is not applicable to the language game of religion.
- only those who are a part of the religious language game can grasp the meaning of the language used
54
what is fideism?
| and how does it relate language games
- theory that faith is independent to reason where they are hostile to one another.
- Faith is superior at aiming at particular truths,
55
What are DZ Phillips views on language games?
- religious language is just a way of defining the rules of the game of religion , it is not grounded in reason.
- The statement "God is love" , he argued is not adescription of an actual existient beings but a way of showing how the word "God" is to be used.
- Religious language is meaninful for those who genuinely use it, not need to be justified outside of language games.
56
Evaluate language games. Give strengths.
- highlights the non-cogntiv e nature of religious language, protecting the religious believers from having to justify their beliefs empirically. CA: should religion be immune to empirical verification. All other truths are subject to the rigour of verification, religious statements should not be exempt to this.
- We can observe language games in the world and do use them.(link to a form of life). We know people understand statements differentyly depending on conexts. CA: there is a chance to enter most language games but religion cannot.
- language games defend language against criticisms from other "forms of life" since truth is understand as relative.
57
Evaluate language games. Give weaknesses.
- alienates anyone not within the language games.
- language games overlap.
- Some RB do not necessarily think of their as non-congitive and take religious statements as factual representations. It reduces the meaningfulness of this statements for R.B.
- Wittgenstein seems to be wrong is asserting that the rleigios language game does not need evidence to support its statements. Why do people lose faith?
- Perhaps they see as evidence that their beliefs are "wrong" , not meaningful.
-
58
What is atheism and
| - in a general sense
- comes from the word, Greek, meaning " without God", describes the position of those who reject belief God or Gods.
- Open Atheism was only enabled only until the period of the enlightenment, which began in the middle of the 16th centurty, by the advance of religious toleration. Human reason and the scientific method were seen as the means of finding truth.
59
Give some of the reasons for the rise of atheism.
- empiricism: view that sense experience is the ultimate souce of all our concepts and knowledge. This led to scepticism about God.
- The problem of evil
- objection to moral absolutes: religion has been regarded as a source of authority for what is right and wrong - Divine Command Theory. The development of society and culture, they questioned views on modern issues. Morality was no longer seen to require God.
- awareness of other faiths: led to the idea that religion is merely decided based on the place of birth.
60
Define the two types of atheism
positive atheism: claims that no God or Gods exist. Asserts that you know that God does not exist. May be due to the lack of evidence.
negative atheism: a lack of a positive belief in God(s) without an assertion that God or Gods do not exist.
A LEVEL RE
flashcards
Decks in class (17)
# Cards
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Philosophical Issues And Questions82
-
Problems of Evil and Suffering26
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Religious Experience25
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Religious Language60
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Works of Scholars17
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Influences of developments in religious belief42
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Significant Concepts in issues or debates in religion and ethics65
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Study of Three Ethical Theories65
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Application of ethical theories35
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Ethical Language46
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Buddhism: Religious beliefs, values and teachings60
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Sources of Wisdom And Authority21
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Practices that shape and express Religious Identity36
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medical ethics33
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Social and Historical Developments31
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Triratna Buddhism13
-
views on life after death1
