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Single Idea 8182
[filed under theme 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 5. Meaning as Verification
]
Full Idea
There is a possible route to realism, which has been called 'ideal verificationism', if we base our grasping the understanding and truth of a range of sentences on the procedure that would be available to an imagined being with superhuman powers.
Gist of Idea
Verificationism could be realist, if we imagined the verification by a superhuman power
Source
Michael Dummett (Thought and Reality [1997], 5)
Book Ref
Dummett,Michael: 'Thought and Reality (Gifford Lectures)' [OUP 2006], p.70
A Reaction
This is actually a slippery slope for verificationists, as soon as they allow that verification could be done by other people. A verifier might turn up who had telepathy, or x-ray vision, or could see quarks...
The
36 ideas
with the same theme
[meaning is tied to observation and verification]:
14906
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Non-positivist verificationism says only take a hypothesis seriously if it is scientifically based and testable
[Ladyman/Ross on Peirce]
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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
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Verificationism could be realist, if we imagined the verification by a superhuman power
[Dummett]
|
8183
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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]
|
4564
|
I can meaningfully speculate that humans may have experiences currently impossible for us
[Cooper,DE]
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4565
|
The verification principle itself seems neither analytic nor verifiable
[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]
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17731
|
Verificationism is better if it says meaningfulness needs concepts grounded in the senses
[Jenkins]
|