BraithwaiteʹʹsAnalysis of Religious Belief; AnInstrumentalist Approach to Religion

ABSTRACT:The contemporary philosopher and physician, Richard Bevan Braithwaite (1900-1990), is among the proponents of instrumentalist attitude.He wrote an essay in 1955 under the heading “An Empiricistʹs View of the Nature of Religious Belief” which drew much attention. He has tried from the position of a religious and empirical physician to hold religious beliefs along with his philosophical and positivistic thought. Braithwaite holds that the function of religious utterances is essentially the same of the moral statements. Religion involves stories that provide a picture of moral life and encourage to that moral life. According to him, the moral and religious statements reflect prescription for and commitment to a special way of behavior and conduct. Consequently, truth and falsity about religious statements are meaningless and essentially religious stories and statements appearing in narrative form, invite their addressees to a proper pattern of life, without being factual. Braithwaite who views the role of religion as moral and expects the religion to offer prescriptions for a proper form of life, has arrived at such a view following a fully positivistic attitude.