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Flip to reveal answersThe three answers to the problem of religious language?
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All 8 Flashcards — Answers to the problem
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Question
The three answers to the problem of religious language?
Answer
Analogy (Aquinas), language games (Wittgenstein), and eschatological verification (Hick).
Question
Aquinas on analogy?
Answer
God-words are used in a related, in-between way — like 'healthy' person vs meal — keeping real meaning without shrinking God.
Question
Why does analogy escape the 'squeeze'?
Answer
It's the missing middle between 'exactly human meaning' (shrinks God) and 'totally different' (empties the word).
Question
Wittgenstein's language game?
Answer
A way of using words that makes sense within a shared practice; religious language is meaningful in its own game, not science's.
Question
Hick's eschatological verification?
Answer
'God exists' is a real claim, checkable in principle after death — like travellers who learn at the road's end where it led.
Question
How do the three answers differ?
Answer
Aquinas reworks HOW words mean; Wittgenstein changes WHERE they mean; Hick changes WHEN they can be checked.
Question
Truth vs form of life?
Answer
Aquinas and Hick keep God-talk as a real claim about how things are; Wittgenstein relocates its meaning into practice.
Question
The topic's arc in one line?
Answer
The problem (can words reach God?) → the sharp attack (verificationism: meaningless) → the answers (analogy, language game, verified after death).
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Topic 5.2 hub
Religious language
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