‘Despite all its weaknesses, democracy is still the best form of government compared with all other forms of government that have been tried in human history.’ Which of the following is False about this sentence.
A) Suppose ‘the best form of government’ means ‘the form of government that is most effective in implementing policies that benefits people’. Whether the sentence in this question is meaningful according to logical positivism depends on whether the ‘benefits’ implied in the previous sentence are observable.
B) Suppose ‘the best form of government’ means ‘the form of government that is most successful in upholding objective moral values’, i.e. moral values whose truth/falsity is independent of the view of any individuals or groups. Whether the sentence in this question is meaningful according to logical positivism depends on whether the effectiveness of implementing policies in line with what most people in a country believe about moral issues, as reflected in surveys of beliefs about these issues, is observable
C it is not meaningless according to pragmatism
D although it is meaningful according to pragmatism, it is not because this sentence is true by definition.
This question tests us on the understanding of Logical Positivism (LP) on "verifiability criterion of meaning" on whether a sentence is meaningful. Well i thought I understood what LP meant, that one can in principle come up with an observable situation that shows the truth/falsity of a statement, and by observable situation, we meant it in a way that there are finite observations which is publicly verifiable.
I have trouble choosing whether it is A or B (note there are 2 other choices which I immediately eliminated), Both sentences said something about observable, but option A did not really say anything about effectiveness, so even though benefits are observable, we cannot test the truth/false of this sentence because we do not what is really effective. So I am more inclined to choose B since it is made clear. However, I am not totally sure, anyone has a better explanation?