verification principle

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The verification principle is a central doctrine of logical positivism claiming that a statement is meaningful only if it can be empirically verified or is analytically true.

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verification principle canonical 1

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf criterion of cognitive significance
doctrine of logical positivism
philosophical principle
theory of meaning
aimsTo distinguish meaningful statements from meaningless ones
alsoKnownAs principle of verification
verifiability principle
appliesTo empirical propositions
logical truths
associatedWith A. J. Ayer
Moritz Schlick
Rudolf Carnap
Vienna Circle
centralTo logical positivism
surface form: logical empiricism

logical positivism
concerns analytic truth
cognitive significance
empirical verification
meaningfulness of statements
criticizedBy Karl Popper
falsificationism
surface form: Karl Popper's falsificationism

Willard Van Orman Quine
surface form: W. V. O. Quine
criticizedFor excluding scientific theoretical statements
overly strict criterion of meaning
self-referential incoherence
excludes non-empirical metaphysical propositions from cognitive meaning
formulatedIn 20th century
historicallyInfluentialIn 20th-century philosophy of language
20th-century philosophy of science
implies many traditional metaphysical claims lack cognitive meaning
influencedBy David Hume
early analytic philosophy
empiricism
logical analysis
legacy shaped debates about meaning, reference, and scientific language
modifiedInto principle of confirmability
weak verification principle
notablyPresentedIn Language, Truth and Logic
surface form: A. J. Ayer's "Language, Truth and Logic"
relatedTo “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”
surface form: analytic–synthetic distinction

falsifiability criterion
meaning as use debates in philosophy of language
requires analytic truth for logical or mathematical statements
empirical testability for factual statements
statesThat a statement is meaningful only if it is empirically verifiable or analytically true
status largely rejected in contemporary analytic philosophy
usedTo reject aesthetic statements as cognitively meaningful propositions
reject ethical statements as cognitively meaningful propositions
reject metaphysical statements as cognitively meaningless
reject theological statements as cognitively meaningless

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Moritz Schlick mainInterest verification principle