LOGICAL POSITIVISM AND RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE
.
Keywords:
Positivism, Language, ReligionAbstract
The traditional discussions regarding religious beliefs were concerned about establishing the truth of a particular statement or a system of statements, but had often neglected the question of their meaning. But, according to the logical positivist position, unless the issue of the meaning of religious statements is first resolved, we cannot even raise the question of their truth. This constituted a challenge to religion, since some of the philosophers came to the conclusion through the analysis of religious language that it has no meaning; and hence we cannot speak about the truth of religious propositions.
References
Kenneth H. Klein, Positivism and Christianity (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974), p. 81.
Trans. D.F. Pears & B.F. McGuinness (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Paperback ed., 1974). Hereafter Tractatus
Richard Rorty, "Metaphysical difficulties of Linguistic Philosophy," in idem, ed., The Linguistic Tum (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), pp. 1-39
Theology and falsification," Idem and Alasdair Macintyre, eds. New Essays in Philosophical Theology (London: SCM Press, 1955; study edition, 1972), pp. 96-100; 106-109.
Wolfgang and Stegmeuller, Main Currents in Current German, British and American Philosophy, trans., Albert E. Blumberg (Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co.,1969), p 423.
Richard Bell, "Wittgenstein and descriptive Theology", Religious Studies 5 (October 1969): 5-7.
Theology and Verification," in Basil Mitchell, ed., The Philosophy of Religion (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 53-72, Reprinted from Theology Today 17(April 1960), pp. 12-31.
