Philosophy Unit 4 - Religious Language Summary

A summary of Philosophy Unit 4 - Religious language specification, including: 4.1 - Analogy and Symbol Analogy: via negativa, knowledge about God may be gained by what God is not like, univocal language and problems of anthropomorphism, equivocal language and problems of a8ribuon, signi+cance of proportional similarities and dissimilarities Symbol: types of symbol across a range of religious traditions, distincon between signs and symbols, symbols identifying and participating in a concept, problems interpreting symbols and their limited application to a particular faith context 4.2 - Veri-ca)on and Falsi-ca)on Debates Context of logical positivism and the Vienna Circle, analytic and synthetic statements, implications for the claim that religious language is meaningless, view that religious claims are false because nothing can count against them, 'bliks' as unfalsifiable ways of framing our interpretation of the world compared to beliefs that are significant articles of faith which may be significantly challenged but not easily abandoned; Strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, including realist and an-realist views and eschatological verificaon 4.3 - Language Games Critique of picture theory, functional uses of language in the context of a form of life, non- cognitive interpretation of language and criteria of coherence in the relevant language game, highlights the distinctive character of religious language, signi+cance of +deism in this context – language can only be understood in the context of faith