The Verification Principle:
The verification principle comes from the concept of logical positivism and is the idea that any proposition must be verified, otherwise it is left meaningless. Essentially it is concerned with truth claims – things are either true, false (if they cannot be verified) or meaningless. Within this there is a logical problem, as no proposition can prove itself. In Austria, the Vienna Circle (a group of philosophers) actively lived by logical positivism, believing in Wittgenstein’s attitude to philosophy. They assert that there are two types of things: things that can be related to experience or empirical knowledge and can therefore logically proven to be true, and things that can’t and are thus meaningless.
As a journalist, it is important to find links between our HCJ course and professional life, and the verification principle is incredibly applicable to a journalist’s day-to-day life. A journalist is concerned with fact – is this true? How do we know it is true? And how can we prove it, should we need to? There is a constant doubt surrounding journalism – one wrong fact and you could be facing the end of your career. The most applicable aspect of logical positivism, in my opinion, is the methodical approach to verifying something. There is no innate knowledge, so coming at a fact as if it is false and working to prove it is key.
Phenomenology:
Phenomenology is a concept we have come back to again and again on the course. In broad terms it can be defined as a branch of philosophy that deals with subjective experience. Kant began the concept of phenomenology with his ideas of phenomena. In his opinion, everything has a phenomenal and a noumenal nature. The phenomenal nature is things that are perceived, whilst the noumenal nature is concerned with when things are unperceived. It’s the classic – if a tree falls in the wood and no-one is around, does it still make a sound? In the same vain, if we look away from something there is a theory that it remains in place, but becomes‘different. This is confirmed by modern science and quantum mechanics.
Husserl asserts that we all have intention- if you want to see something, you will. Thus YOU create the world.
Economics - Keyne and Hayek
Keyne and Hayek had very different views on economics. The Great Depression brought about the Keynesian revolution – from the war to the 1950s/60s. The Government printed money because of the cost of war, which lead to inflation (HOWEVER full employment which Keyne advocated). In Keyne's mind it was good to print money! “Better to have people digging holes and filling them up again than unemployed” However Hayek criticised this plan as it led to huge state control; all people were ultimately employed by the state. Hayek disputed that money influences anything. This very much links back to Arendt and Totalitarianism – the lack of freedom from the state. Keyne wanted to steer the markets whilst Hayek wanted them set free, although understandably both economists feared a boom and bust cycle. For Hayek the capital structure was key and any bad investments could ruin the economy – SAVING was vital. For Keyne EMPLOYMENT was more important and in fact the main solution for the Depression.
Wittgenstein and The Tractatus
The opening chapter of The Tractatus concerns the world and how we define it. Wittgenstein asserts that "the world is everything that is the case" and that "the world is the totality of facts, not of things".
Wittgeinstein rejects naïve materialism and idealism – there are no ‘perfect’ things.
The concept of Logical Positivism, as mentioned above, was followed by Wittgenstein and states that all knowledge that we can rely on is factual, scientific knowledge. The world is purely made up of facts that are just in our minds, however they all need verifying.
Syllogism = a logical argument which states that facts must be verified by existing facts.
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