Background to Verificationism

About the lecture

In this module, we introduce the background to verificationism in philosophy, focusing in particular on (i) Kant’s views on the limits of reason, and the effect of mental categories on our perception of reality (ii) Gottlob Frege’s inauguration of the analysis of language and thought in analytic philosophy (iii) Bertrand Russell’s analysis of definite descriptions (iv) Wittgenstein’s contributions to the philosophy of language (v) the development of verificationism by logical positivists in the Vienna Circle, and A.J. Ayer.

About the lecturer

Dr Arif Ahmed is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. He writes mainly on decision theory, but also has an interest in religion and has debated the subject against William Lane Craig, Tariq Ramadan, Rowan Williams and others. Some of his recent publications include (as editor) Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations: A Critical Guide (2010), Evidence, Decision and Causality (2014) and (as editor) Classical Philosophical Arguments: Newcomb's Problem (2018).