HCJ Exam Revision

1.Outline the verification principle on part of the school of thought known as logical positivism. How might this principle be applied in the work of a journalist?

• Verification principle proposed by A.J Ayer, but the core of the idea can be traced back to Locke and Empiricism.

• If a statement cannot be verified it is meaningless. It is neither true nor false.

• Most associated with the logical positivists movement which began in inter-war Vienna

• Leads back to empiricism, which believes that observation and experiences are the only way to acquire knowledge.

• Strong verification: statements which are directly verifiable.

• Weak verification: statements which are not directly verifiable but highly probable.

• Wittgenstein: “Of that which we cannot speak, we must remain silent”

• Comte put forth the idea that unverifiable sentences are not only meaningless but it is pointless to consider statements that cannot be verified.

• Karl Popper rejected the idea that meaningful sentences need to be verified, but must be falsifiable.

• Logical Positivism began with discussions from a small group called the Vienna Circle.

• The principle is applied to journalism because everything must be verifiable. It is all about facts. They must be true, and they must be verifiable.

2: What is phenomenology? Can there be such a thing as subjective reality or subjective truth? What sort of standards ought a journalist apply?

• Phenomenology is a doctrine proposed by Edmund Husserl based on the study of human experience in which considerations of objective reality are not taken into account.

• Phenomenology is a branch of philosophy that deals with subjective experience-your own personal reaction to something and why you react that way.

• Originated “phenomena”

• Immanuel Kant-Critique of Pure Reason. Believed that everything has a dual nature. Numinal-The thing in itself. Phenomenal-the unperceived object. His ideas have been proved by quantum mechanics.

• Phenomenologists believe that things aren’t there unless you are perceiving them. Empiricists also believe this.

• At the time phenomenology was founded, there were some who were idealists or rationalists, and some who were empiricists. The idealists thought that reality was all in the mind, whereas empiricists believed that perceptions are of things external to the mind, and that you acquire knowledge through experience and perceptions. Husserl was aiming to resolve this opposition. He believed in the power of intention: that if you want to see something, you will.

• Existentialism is a moral code concerned with phenomenology. Existentialists believe that each individual person is free and responsible for themselves determining their own future through acts of will. They make their own choices and deal with the consequences. An example of this is in Albert Camus book-The Outsider, although Camus does not consider himself an existentialist. The book revolves around a character, Mersault, who makes choices in his life and lives with the consequences, which results in his execution.

• Journalism is all about truth. According to Husserl, if you want to see something, you will. So you can choose what to see and what to believe. Therefore there is no objective truth.

3. Describe in broad terms JM Keynes ideas on monetary policy, with an indication of how the "Keynesian Revolution" came about. Does Keynesianism inevitably lead to social regression, moral failure and serfdom as Hayek suggests?

• Keynes believed that demand, not supply, is the driving factor determining levels of unemployment.
• The central theme was that the government could change the level of unemployment via tax cuts, changes in interest rates, and money supply.
• The driving force was the economic crisis of the Great Depression in the 30s, and consumer society later profited from this in the 50s.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc

4. "Facts in logical space are the world" Wittgenstein, Tractatus. Do you agree?

• Followed by the logical positivists of the Vienna Circle.
• Book begins by explaining what the world is made up of.
• Building blocks of reality are simple objects.
• Simple objects combine to create states of affairs.
• States of affairs combine to form complex facts.
• The world is a totality of positive facts.
• Logical Space is the space in which objects and states of affairs exist.
• Everything in logical space is possible, regardless of true or false.
• Links to phenomenology.

5. Choose one thinker we have looked at or one movement and explain why it is significant in journalism.

HCJ-Tractatus

The beginning of Wittgensteins' "Tractatus" deals with ontology, and what the world is fundamentally made of. The building blocks of reality are made up of objects. These combine to create state of affairs, which can be combined together to create complex facts. The world is a totality of positive facts. The space in which objects and states of affairs exist is called logical space.

The next part of the book describes how language works so that the world can be described accurately. According to Wittgenstein, language consists of complex propositions that are built from simple, elementary propositions. He believes that language mirrors reality by sharing its logical form. Names mirror objects, elementary propositions mirror states of affairs, and propositions mirror facts. Wittgenstein goes on to say that there are 3 types of propositions: Tautologies, which are always true. Contradictions, which are always false, and propositions with a sense, which can be true or false depending on what is or is not the case in the world.

Wittgenstein goes on to talk about pictures, and how in order to establish whether a picture is true or false, we must compare it to reality.

Logical Positivism

The Verification Principle was proposed by A.J. Ayer, but the core of the idea can be traced back to Locke and Empiricism. The idea is that if a statement cannot be verified, then it is neither true or false but meaningless. This idea is associated with the logical positivists movement in Inter War Vienna. Logical positivism came from discussions within a small group called the Vienna Circle.

Comte put forth the idea that unverifiable statements are not only meaningless but that it is pointless to even consider them if they cannot be verified. This links in with Wittgenstein who said "That of which we cannot speak, we must remain silent".

It is important to understand the different types of verification. Strong verifications are statements which are directly verifiable. Weak verifications are not directly verifiable, but highly probable.

Karl Popper rejected the idea that meaningless sentences need to be verified, but they must be falsifiable.

Logical positivists believed the universe was made up of meaningful judgements, and that everything else, such as religion and metaphysics, are meaningless nonsense.