verificationism

Verificationism, a core tenet of logical positivism, posits that a statement is meaningful only if it can be empirically verified or is a tautology (true by definition). This means that statements must be linked to observable conditions or experiences to have factual meaning. Sentences that cannot be verified through experience, such as many ethical, religious, or metaphysical claims, are considered meaningless in terms of conveying knowledge. The meaning of a statement is essentially the set of conditions under which it would be true. However, this principle faced criticism, notably from Willard Van Orman Quine, who argued that empirical evidence cannot definitively determine the meaning of a word or sentence.213