University/Organization
Department of Philosophy
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
Department of Philosophy
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
Title
Restoring Relevance to Verifiability
Synopsis
Verifiability plays a central role in guaranteeing meaningfulness in the positivist program. We consider some known difficulties; then we focus on Ayer’s original and revised verification principles which were criticized by several philosophers. Ayer emphasized that empirical hypotheses must be relevant to observations. We use the logic of relevant implication R to analyze counterexamples that were proposed to show that the principles are inadequate for excising nonsensical parts from knowledge.