What is your answer?

Some philosophers make claims about a reality transcending sense experience. For example, they talk about God, or about immaterial souls, or about objective values.

Ayer's chief objection to this is that

    { 1 } - it's mere speculation; in such matters, we'll never know the truth.
    { 2 } - such claims are meaningless -- they're neither true nor false.
    { 3 } - history shows the inability of humans to make progress on such issues.

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1 is wrong. Please try again.

Some philosophers make claims about a reality transcending sense experience. For example, they talk about God, or about immaterial souls, or about objective values.

Ayer's chief objection to this is that

His criticism goes deeper than that. Ayer thinks that there's no truth to be known on such issues.

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2 is correct!

Some philosophers make claims about a reality transcending sense experience. For example, they talk about God, or about immaterial souls, or about objective values.

Ayer's chief objection to this is that

    { 1 } - it's mere speculation; in such matters, we'll never know the truth.
    { 2 } - such claims are meaningless -- they're neither true nor false.
    { 3 } - history shows the inability of humans to make progress on such issues.

Genuine issues must be capable of being resolved -- by appealing to an empirical test or to how we use language. Metaphysical issues can't be resolved in either way. Hence metaphysics is nonsense.

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3 is wrong. Please try again.

Some philosophers make claims about a reality transcending sense experience. For example, they talk about God, or about immaterial souls, or about objective values.

Ayer's chief objection to this is that

    { 1 } - it's mere speculation; in such matters, we'll never know the truth.
    { 2 } - such claims are meaningless -- they're neither true nor false.
    { 3 } - history shows the inability of humans to make progress on such issues.

This historical point suggests that something may be wrong with such metaphysical claims. Ayer tells us more specifically what he thinks is wrong.

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