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Everything about Verificationism
Philosophical doctrine
Verificationism, also known as the verification principle or the verifiability criterion of meaning, is a doctrine in philosophy which asserts that a statement is cognitively meaningful only if it is empirically verifiable or an analytic truth. Typically expressed as a criterion of meaning, it rejects traditional statements of metaphysics, theology, ethics and aesthetics as meaningless in terms of conveying truth value or factual content, reducing them to emotive expressions or "pseudostatements" that are neither true nor false. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: VerificationismA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Different Roles for Multiple Perspectives and Rigorous Testing in Scientific Theories and Models: Towards More Open, Context-Appropriate VerificationismInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: VerificationismThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Verificationism and Transcendental ArgumentsCited 43 times
- Go sideways: Logical positivismA closely related topic
- Go sideways: InductivismA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun Belief in the verifiability principle.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
Verificationism and Transcendental Arguments
Fitch's proof, verificationism, and the knower paradox
Verificationism and non-distributive knowledge
Verificationism and a causal account of meaning
Verificationism and (Some of) its Discontents
Semantic verificationism, linguistic behaviorism, and translation
The origins of Wittgenstein's verificationism
Verificationism Revisited
🆕 Influential since 2022
Different Roles for Multiple Perspectives and Rigorous Testing in Scientific Theories and Models: Towards More Open, Context-Appropriate Verificationism
Fitch’s Paradox Beyond Verificationism: On a Puzzle for Closure and Some Modally Qualified Principles
Epistemological pragmatism of William Kneale as an alternative to strict verificationism
VERIFICATIONISM AND FALSIFICATIONISM IN THE CONTEXT OF RELIGIOUS AND LINGUISTIC VERIFICATION
What Does Bonjour’s Empirical Foundationalism (Unwittingly) Inherit from Carnap’s and Schlick’s Verificationism?
📚 Books worth reading
VerificationismC. J. Misak · 1995- 📕Minimal VerificationismGordian Haas · 2015
Ideas That MatterA. C. Grayling · 2009
Kant's transcendental argumentsScott Stapleford · 2008
Philosophy of languageAlexander Miller · 2006- 📕The Routledge companion to metaphysicsRobin Le Poidevin · 2009
- 📕Private language and verificationismVincent Carey · 1982
- 📕Osservatione notabile sopra l'elettione del Nuouo Pontefice Clemente X, e sopra la verificatione della profetia di San Malachia de Flumine Magno · 1670
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
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