ABSTRACT
Epistemic empiricism may allow for truths which cannot be known because they transcend experience, but which may somehow be acknowledged by faith. Three main variants of semantic empiricism have been influential on the contemporary scene: logical positivism, operationism, and pragmatism. The logical positivist position is embodied in what has come to be called “the verifiability theory of meaning.” As its proponents have often pointed out, it is better construed, not as a theory, but as a rule or methodological norm. The positivist and operationist are quite right to insist that meaning is inseparable from the capacity for truth, even more, for truth which can be known. Semantic empiricism implies that whatever elements be chosen, the terms by which refer to them must have their meanings specifiable on the basis of observables. These observables are the same whatever the locus of inquiry.
