Non-cognitivism%20in%20religious%20faith%20and%20language

1
Non-cognitivism in religious faith and language

• Michael Lacewing
• enquiries_at_alevelphilosophy.co.uk

2
Non-cognitivism

• The door is in the corner - true or false
  factual belief can be known (cognition)
• A different kind of belief I believe in love -
  expression of a value I hold, not something I
  know (non-cognitive)
• Is religious language like the first or the
  second?

3
Søren Kierkegaard

• Religious faith is not a philosophical system or
  set of beliefs it is held passionately.
• To believe that God exists, but to treat this as
  just another fact, about which we feel nothing,
  is not to have faith. Faith isnt (just) a matter
  of what, but of how, we believe.

4
Objective uncertainty

• The commitment that characterizes faith requires
  a decision, a leap. This leap requires
  objective uncertainty.
• Objective certainty will not have the same impact
  on ones life as faith in the face of uncertainty
  - perhaps God prevents certainty for this reason.

5
Is faith irrational?

• Faith is incomprehensible, but it is not
  irrational we cannot believe nonsense against
  the understanding because the understanding will
  penetratingly perceive that it is nonsense and
  hinder us in believing it.
• Religious faith in its trust and commitment is
  incomprehensible in that it lies outside the
  limits that reason can reach for itself.

6
Is Kierkegaard a non-cognitivist?

• There are facts about God, but we cannot know
  these facts using reason.
• Religious faith must involve an emotional
  response.
• So religious language is expressive, not merely
  fact-stating.

7
Ludwig Wittgenstein

• Language can be compared to games
• Both are guided by rules - what you can do, what
  words mean
• The meaning of words lies in how they are used
• Cp. the peace of the Lord passes understanding
  the car passes the house

8
Language games

• Examples asking, thanking, cursing, praying,
  greeting
• A language game is the spoken aspect of a form
  of life a form of life is a whole collection of
  cultural practices, but Wittgenstein also
  emphasises its biological basis

9
Religion

• Religion involves many language games, but not a
  whole form of life
• A distinctive part of a distinctively human form
  of life rooted in natural human responses

10
Religious language

• Religious language governed by quite different
  rules, e.g. asking God and asking your boss for
  prosperity
• God exists - God is not a thing
• a religious belief could only be something like
  a passionate commitment to a system of reference.
  Hence, although its a belief, its really a way
  of living, or a way of assessing life. Its
  passionately seizing hold of this
  interpretation. (Culture and Value 64)
• Religious language is not descriptive, but
  expressive

11
Phillips defending Wittgenstein

• Wittgenstein isolates religion from all rational
  criticism
• Religion has something to say about birth,
  death, joy, misery, despair, hope, fortune, and
  misfortune. If religion doesnt help us make
  sense of these, we are right to reject it.
• However, religion cannot be criticised as not
  true - it does not make factual claims.
  Religious language takes its meaning from
  religious life.
• To think God is the name of a thing or exists
  independently of religion is a monstrous
  illusion

12
Objection

• Non-cognitivism is a reinterpretation of
  religious belief and language, not an analysis of
  it - religious believers think God exists is a
  fact, likewise that they will exist in heaven
  after death
• Religious language could have both cognitive and
  non-cognitive aspects - it can be both factual
  and expressive