Who Says Only Scientific Statements Make Sense?

[Louis-Antoine]

Hello, though new to AnswerBank, I have been reading current and many earlier posts on the 'Religion and Spirituality' threads, and it astonishes me to see so many (though not all) self-proclaimed scientific authorities eschewing all religious and spiritual beliefs merely on the feeble and illogical grounds that they are lacking in scientific validation.
In his early work 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus' Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: "The right method of philosophy would be to say nothing except what can be said, that is to say the propositions of natural science."
Regrettably for him, the sentences that constituted the Tractatus itself were not propositions of natural science. In consistency, Wittgenstein had to concede that they were nothing more than nonsense. This line of thought is now known as "Ludwig's Self-Trap'
Wittgenstein spent the latter part of his life repenting the claim that only scientific statements made sense. Others it seems are still willing to follow on into similar traps. I see on here the logical-positivist principle being by upheld; ie. meaningful propositions with relationship to religious beliefs must be either analytic of verification or falsification by experience. However, as the verification principle itself is neither analytic nor empirical, it follows that this assertion has to be meaningless. Does anyone disagree?

[Nibble]

Also has a vvvv similar attitude to cut & paste, IMO

[jomifl]

There are physical facts and there is philosophical facts. The philosophical facts are determined by the physical facts eg. the side of the bed out of which the philosopher falls. Oh I forgot to mention Wittgenstein and Russel for extra credibility...

[goodlife]

And now you see how the evolutionary litany that ‘evolution is a fact’ becomes a belief: through “repetition without proper documentation” from scientific evidence.

[Answerprancer]

"Louis Antoine" are you actually capable of human interaction or are you just going to talk *at* us?

[Answerprancer]

Goodlife, LA isn't your latest 'sockpuppet' is he?

[chrisgel]

Goodlife - You show me yours and I'll show you mine.

Scientific evidence that is.

[chakka35]

Oh goodlife, you're not seriously trying to challenge the principle of evolution are you? After all these years? How tedious.

[Louis-Antoine]

jake-the-peg; I'm impressed at your ability to read the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in German, did you notice the bit where he said; "Seien Sie besonders vorsichtig was Sie am ersten Tag des vierten Monats des Jahres veroeffentlicht sehen."
With kind regards, Louis-Antoine de Bourgainville.

[jim360]

Yeah, we've been had, clearly. *clap*

[jomifl]

Not that clearly jim, I haven't quite finished translating the German ;-)

[jim360]

I just put it into Google translate. The resulting grammar was bad, but I got enough of it. Ich spreche nicht Deutsch. Beyond that sentence, anyway.

[jomifl]

I have to admit that I did too, who gives a **** for credibility.

[modeller]

//"Seien Sie besonders vorsichtig was Sie am ersten Tag des vierten Monats des Jahres veroeffentlicht sehen." //

Be especially careful what you see released on the first day of the fourth month of the year.

[Answerprancer]

Yeah, I was ..er going along with it (got out of that one!)

[jomifl]

Strange that Khandro hasn't contributed to this thread. I'd have thought it was right up his Straße. The muddled philosophical reasoning, the quotes from obsure and strangely named philosophers and the veiled criticism of 'science' should appeal to him considerably. Perhaps he is on holiday or too busy contributing to the philosophy chat rooms that he frequents....Ah there's a clue.. eh? Ludwig

[naomi24]

Jom, Khandro is dangling.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/members/khandro/

[ludwig]

My thoughts exactly Jom. Maybe it's khandro's french born german speaking cousin.

There's no way it's goodlife. There's non-scriptural text and a smattering of humour, neither of which are present in any of goodlife's offerings.

[naomi24]

mmmm .... could be. It's definitely not Goodlife.

[Louis-Antoine]

Who's Khandro?