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.