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Single Idea 2760

[filed under theme 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 5. Meaning as Verification ]

Full Idea

The foundationalist claim that there are inferential and non-inferential justifications is mirrored by the claim of logical empiricism (the verification principle) that all significant statements are either strongly or weakly verifiable.

Gist of Idea

Logical positivism implies foundationalism, by dividing weak from strong verifications

Source

Jonathan Dancy (Intro to Contemporary Epistemology [1985], 6.2)

Book Ref

Dancy,Jonathan: 'Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology' [Blackwell 1985], p.88

A Reaction

I take it to be characteristic of both to divide the support for something into two types, one of which is basic, and the other built up on the basics. The first step is to decide what is basic.

The 36 ideas with the same theme [meaning is tied to observation and verification]:

14906 Non-positivist verificationism says only take a hypothesis seriously if it is scientifically based and testable [Ladyman/Ross on Peirce]
6427 Unverifiable propositions about the remote past are still either true or false [Russell]
13468 Russell started philosophy of language, by declaring some plausible sentences to be meaningless [Russell, by Hart,WD]
5388 Every understood proposition is composed of constituents with which we are acquainted [Russell]
10117 Intuitonists in mathematics worried about unjustified assertion, as well as contradiction [Brouwer, by George/Velleman]
18728 The meaning of a proposition is the mode of its verification [Wittgenstein]
4150 Asking about verification is only one way of asking about the meaning of a proposition [Wittgenstein]
18282 You can't believe it if you can't imagine a verification for it [Wittgenstein]
7086 Good philosophy asserts science, and demonstrates the meaninglessness of metaphysics [Wittgenstein]
5164 A statement is meaningful if observation statements can be deduced from it [Ayer]
5165 Directly verifiable statements must entail at least one new observation statement [Ayer]
5166 The principle of verification is not an empirical hypothesis, but a definition [Ayer]
5181 A sentence is factually significant to someone if they know how to verify its proposition [Ayer]
5184 Factual propositions imply (in conjunction with a few other premises) possible experiences [Ayer]
5186 Tautologies and empirical hypotheses form the entire class of significant propositions [Ayer]
8181 A justificationist theory of meaning leads to the rejection of classical logic [Dummett]
8182 Verificationism could be realist, if we imagined the verification by a superhuman power [Dummett]
8183 If truths about the past depend on memories and current evidence, the past will change [Dummett]
8193 Verification is not an individual but a collective activity [Dummett]
4565 The verification principle itself seems neither analytic nor verifiable [Cooper,DE]
4564 I can meaningfully speculate that humans may have experiences currently impossible for us [Cooper,DE]
2744 Verificationism (the 'verification principle') is an earlier form of anti-realism [Dancy,J]
2760 Logical positivism implies foundationalism, by dividing weak from strong verifications [Dancy,J]
13410 Verificationism about concepts means you can't deny a theory, because you can't have the concept [Papineau]
3007 Many different verification procedures can reach 'star', but it only has one semantic value [Fodor]
7883 Verificationists tend to infer indefinite answers from undecidable questions [Papineau]
13882 A milder claim is that understanding requires some evidence of that understanding [Wright,C]
4999 For behaviourists language is just a special kind of behaviour [Kirk,R]
2971 Perhaps logical positivism showed that there is no dividing line between science and metaphysics [Lockwood]
3181 A one hour gap in time might be indirectly verified, but then almost anything could be [Rey]
10060 Logical positivists adopted an If-thenist version of logicism about numbers [Musgrave]
7766 Meaning must be known before we can consider verification [Lycan]
4710 Verificationism was attacked by the deniers of the analytic-synthetic distinction, needed for 'facts' [O'Grady]
9134 The negation of a meaningful sentence must itself be meaningful [Sorensen]
5748 We accept unverifiable propositions because of simplicity, utility, explanation and plausibility [Melia]
17731 Verificationism is better if it says meaningfulness needs concepts grounded in the senses [Jenkins]