Difference between revisions 15081049 and 16106846 on enwiki

A '''meaningless statement''' is a statement which posits nothing of substance which can be agreed or disagreed with. In the context of [[logical fallacy|logical fallacies]], the inclusion of a meaningless statement in the premises of the argument will undermine the validity of the argument since the premise can neither be confirmed or falsified.

It can be difficult to prove that a statement is meaningless because such statements are often offered in bad faith.

(contracted; show full)
* An ungrammatical sentence admits of no meaning. For instance, the string of words "deities Olympus Greek reside The. upon" forms no sentence, and cannot be said to have meaning as such.
* Adherents to various forms of [[positivism]] regard a statement as meaningless if it cannot be verified or falsified. For instance, [[Thomism|Thomists]] make statements about 
iundetectable ''essences'' of things, which by definition can never be sensed or perceived; positivists regard such statements as without meaning.

Examples:

* "An orange is an apple which has many idiosyncratic features such as color, texture, taste, internal structure and chemical composition."
* "I am wearing clothes made of totally unobservable fibers."
* Some claim that statements about "[[Arguments against the existence of God|the existence of God]]" are inherently meaningless.

[[Category:Logical fallacies]]