There are different shades of positivism, and I think at least some positivists are willing to say any statement for which there is a decision procedure even possible in principle for an omnipotent being is meaningful.
Under this interpretation, as Doug S. says, the omnipotent being can travel back in time, withstand the heat of the sun, and check the status of the cake. The omnipotent being could also teleport to the spaceship past the cosmological horizon and see if it’s still there or not.
However, an omnipotent being still wouldn’t have a decision procedure with which to evaluate whether Shakespeare’s works show signs of post-colonial alienation (although closely related questions like whether Shakespeare meant for his plays to reflect alienation could be solved by going back in time and asking him).
This sort of positivism, I think, gets the word “meaningful” exactly right.
Might algorithmic positivism be a good name for it? As in if there is an implementable algorithm which decides the truth of the sentence, it is meaningful.
There are different shades of positivism, and I think at least some positivists are willing to say any statement for which there is a decision procedure even possible in principle for an omnipotent being is meaningful.
Under this interpretation, as Doug S. says, the omnipotent being can travel back in time, withstand the heat of the sun, and check the status of the cake. The omnipotent being could also teleport to the spaceship past the cosmological horizon and see if it’s still there or not.
However, an omnipotent being still wouldn’t have a decision procedure with which to evaluate whether Shakespeare’s works show signs of post-colonial alienation (although closely related questions like whether Shakespeare meant for his plays to reflect alienation could be solved by going back in time and asking him).
This sort of positivism, I think, gets the word “meaningful” exactly right.
Might algorithmic positivism be a good name for it? As in if there is an implementable algorithm which decides the truth of the sentence, it is meaningful.