Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer (; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989),
usually cited as A. J. Ayer, was an English philosopher known for his promotion of
logical positivism
Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion o ...
, particularly in his books ''
Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) and ''The Problem of Knowledge'' (1956).
He was educated at
Eton College
Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...
and the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, after which he studied the philosophy of logical positivism at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hi ...
. From 1933 to 1940 he lectured on philosophy at
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniq ...
.
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
Ayer was a
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its p ...
and
MI6 agent.
He was
Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
from 1946 until 1959, after which he returned to Oxford to become
Wykeham Professor
The University of Oxford has three statutory professorships named after William of Wykeham, who founded New College.
Logic
The Wykeham Professorship in Logic was established in 1859, although it was not known as the Wykeham chair until later. ...
of Logic at
New College.
He was president of the
Aristotelian Society
The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London.
History
Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squa ...
from 1951 to 1952 and
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
ed in 1970. He was known for his advocacy of
humanism
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
, and was the second president of the
British Humanist Association
Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious b ...
(now known as Humanists UK).
Professor A. J. Ayer was president of the
Homosexual Law Reform Society
The Homosexual Law Reform Society was an organisation that campaigned in the United Kingdom for changes to the set of laws which criminalised homosexuality at the time.
History
In 1954 the Conservative government set up a Departmental Committe ...
for a time; he remarked that "as a notorious heterosexual I could never be accused of feathering my own nest."
Life
Ayer was born in
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...
, in north west London, to Jules Louis Cyprien Ayer and Reine (née Citroen), wealthy parents from
continental Europe
Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...
. His mother was from the Dutch-Jewish family who founded the
Citroën
Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired 8 ...
car company in France; his father was a Swiss
Calvinist
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...
financier who worked for the
Rothschild family
The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of Fr ...
, including for their bank and as secretary to Alfred Rothschild.
Ayer was educated at
Ascham St Vincent's School, a former boarding
preparatory school for boys in the seaside town of
Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the l ...
in
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...
, in which he started boarding at the comparatively early age of seven for reasons to do with the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, and
Eton College
Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...
, where he was a
King's Scholar
A King's Scholar is a foundation scholar (elected on the basis of good academic performance and usually qualifying for reduced fees) of one of certain public schools. These include Eton College; The King's School, Canterbury; The King's School ...
. It was at Eton that Ayer first became known for his characteristic bravado and precocity. Although primarily interested in furthering his intellectual pursuits, he was very keen on sports, particularly rugby, and reputedly played the
Eton Wall Game very well. In the final examinations at Eton, Ayer came second in his year, and first in classics. In his final year, as a member of Eton's senior council, he unsuccessfully campaigned for the abolition of
corporal punishment at the school. He won a classics scholarship to
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniq ...
. He graduated with a
BA with
first-class honours
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...
.
After graduation from Oxford, Ayer spent a year in Vienna, returned to England and published his first book, ''
Language, Truth and Logic
''Language, Truth and Logic'' is a 1936 book about meaning by the philosopher Alfred Jules Ayer, in which the author defines, explains, and argues for the verification principle of logical positivism, sometimes referred to as the ''criterion of ...
'' in 1936. The first exposition in English of
logical positivism
Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion o ...
as newly developed by the
Vienna Circle
The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, ch ...
, this made Ayer at age 26 the 'enfant terrible' of British philosophy. As a newly famous intellectual, Ayer played a prominent role in the
Oxford by-election campaign of 1938.
Ayer campaigned first for the Labour candidate
Patrick Gordon Walker, and then for the joint Labour-Liberal "Independent Progressive" candidate
Sandie Lindsay who ran on an anti-appeasement platform against the Conservative candidate,
Quintin Hogg who ran as the appeasement candidate.
The by-election when it was held on 27 October 1938 was quite close with Hogg winning a narrow victory over Lindsay.
In the Second World War he served as an officer in the Welsh Guards, chiefly in intelligence (Special Operations Executive (SOE) and
MI6). Ayer was commissioned
second lieutenant into the
Welsh Guards
The Welsh Guards (WG; cy, Gwarchodlu Cymreig), part of the Guards Division, is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the First World War, by Royal Warrant of George V. ...
from Officer Cadet Training Unit on 21 September 1940.
After the war, he briefly returned to the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
where he became a fellow and
Dean of Wadham College
This is a list of Wadham College, Oxford people, including alumni, Fellows, Deans and Wardens of the College. An alphabetical list of alumni of Wadham college can be found here.
Alumni Academics
* Martin Aitken, archaeometrist
* Amir Attaran, ...
. He thereafter taught philosophy at
London University
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...
from 1946 until 1959, when he also started to appear on radio and television. He was an extrovert and social mixer who liked dancing and attending the clubs in London and New York. He was also obsessed with sport: he had played rugby for Eton, and was a noted cricketer and a keen supporter of
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
football team, where he was for many years a season ticket holder. For an academic, Ayer was an unusually well-connected figure in his time, with close links to 'high society' and the establishment. Presiding over Oxford high-tables, he is often described as charming, but at times he could also be intimidating.
Ayer was married four times to three women.
His first marriage was from 1932–1941 to (Grace Isabel) Renée (d. 1980), with whom he had a son - alleged to be in fact the son of Ayer's friend and colleague, philosopher
Stuart Hampshire - and a daughter. Renée subsequently married Stuart Hampshire.
In 1960 he married
Alberta Constance (Dee) Wells, with whom he had one son.
Ayer's marriage to Wells was dissolved in 1983 and that same year he married Vanessa Salmon, former wife of politician
Nigel Lawson
Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, (born 11 March 1932) is a British Conservative Party politician and journalist. He was a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Blaby from 1974 to 1992, and served in the cabinet of Margaret ...
. She died in 1985 and in 1989 he remarried Dee Wells, who survived him.
Ayer also had a daughter with Hollywood columnist
Sheilah Graham Westbrook.
In 1950, Ayer attended the founding meeting of the
Congress for Cultural Freedom in West Berlin, though he later stated that he only went because of the offer of a "free trip".
Ayer gave a speech on why he felt that
John Stuart Mill's classic liberal conceptions of liberty and freedom were still valid for the 20th century.
Together with the historian
Hugh Trevor-Roper
Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.
Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of ...
, Ayer fought against
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...
and
Franz Borkenau
Franz Borkenau (December 15, 1900 – May 22, 1957) was an Austrian writer. Borkenau was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of a civil servant. As a university student in Leipzig, his main interests were Marxism and psychoanalysis. Borkenau is kno ...
, arguing that the latter two were far too dogmatic and extreme in their anti-communism, and were in fact proposing illiberal measures in the defense of liberty.
Adding to the tension was the location in
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
, together with the fact that the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
began on 25 June 1950, the fourth day of the congress, giving a feeling that the world was on the brink of war.
From 1959 to his retirement in 1978, Sir Alfred held the Wykeham Chair, Professor of Logic at Oxford. He was knighted in 1970. After his retirement, Ayer taught or lectured several times in the United States, including serving as a visiting professor at
Bard College
Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark.
Founded in 1860, ...
in the fall of 1987. At a party that same year held by fashion designer
Fernando Sanchez, Ayer, then 77, confronted
Mike Tyson who was forcing himself upon the (then) little-known model
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...
. When Ayer demanded that Tyson stop, the boxer reportedly asked, "Do you know who the fuck I am? I'm the heavyweight champion of the world," to which Ayer replied, "And I am the former
Wykeham Professor of Logic. We are both pre-eminent in our field. I suggest that we talk about this like rational men". Ayer and Tyson then began to talk, allowing Campbell to slip out. Ayer was also involved in politics being involved in anti-Vietnam War activism, supporting the Labour Party (and then later the
Social Democratic Party), Chairman of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination in Sport, and president of the
Homosexual Law Reform Society
The Homosexual Law Reform Society was an organisation that campaigned in the United Kingdom for changes to the set of laws which criminalised homosexuality at the time.
History
In 1954 the Conservative government set up a Departmental Committe ...
.
In 1988, a year before his death, Ayer wrote an article entitled, "What I saw when I was dead", describing an unusual
near-death experience
A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death which researchers claim share similar characteristics. When positive, such experiences may encompass a variety of sensations including detac ...
. Of the experience, Ayer first said that it "slightly weakened my conviction that my genuine death ... will be the end of me, though I continue to hope that it will be." However, a few weeks later he revised this, saying "what I should have said is that my experiences have weakened, not my belief that there is no life after death, but my inflexible attitude towards that belief".
Ayer died on 27 June 1989. From 1980 to 1989 Ayer lived at 51 York Street,
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...
, where a memorial plaque was unveiled on 19 November 1995.
Philosophical ideas
In ''Language, Truth and Logic'' (1936), Ayer presents the
verification principle as the only valid basis for philosophy. Unless logical or empirical verification is possible, statements like "God exists" or "charity is good" are not true or untrue but meaningless, and may thus be excluded or ignored. Religious language in particular was unverifiable and as such literally nonsense. He also criticises
C. A. Mace's opinion that metaphysics is a form of intellectual poetry. The stance that a belief in "God" denotes no verifiable hypothesis is sometimes referred to as
igtheism (for example, by
Paul Kurtz
Paul Kurtz (December 21, 1925 – October 20, 2012) was an American scientific skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at B ...
). In later years Ayer reiterated that he did not believe in God and began to refer to himself as an atheist. He followed in the footsteps of
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
by debating with the Jesuit scholar
Frederick Copleston
Frederick Charles Copleston (10 April 1907 – 3 February 1994) was an English Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, philosopher, and historian of philosophy, best known for his influential multi-volume '' A History of Philosophy'' (1946–75).
...
on the topic of religion.
Ayer's version of
emotivism
Emotivism is a meta-ethical view that claims that ethical sentences do not express propositions but emotional attitudes. Hence, it is colloquially known as the hurrah/boo theory. Influenced by the growth of analytic philosophy and logical positi ...
divides "the ordinary system of ethics" into four classes:
#"Propositions that express definitions of ethical terms, or judgements about the legitimacy or possibility of certain definitions"
#"Propositions describing the phenomena of moral experience, and their causes"
#"Exhortations to moral virtue"
#"Actual ethical judgments"
He focuses on propositions of the first class—moral judgments—saying that those of the second class belong to science, those of the third are mere commands, and those of the fourth (which are considered in
normative ethics as opposed to
meta-ethics) are too concrete for ethical philosophy.
Ayer argues that moral judgments cannot be translated into non-ethical, empirical terms and thus cannot be verified; in this he agrees with
ethical intuitionists. But he differs from intuitionists by discarding appeals to intuition of non-empirical moral truths as "worthless"
since the intuition of one person often contradicts that of another. Instead, Ayer concludes that ethical concepts are "mere pseudo-concepts":
Between 1945 and 1947, together with Russell and
George Orwell, he contributed a series of articles to ''
Polemic
Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topic ...
'', a short-lived British "Magazine of Philosophy, Psychology, and Aesthetics" edited by the ex-Communist
Humphrey Slater.
Ayer was closely associated with the British
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
movement. He was an Honorary Associate of the
Rationalist Press Association
The Rationalist Association, originally the Rationalist Press Association, is an organization in the United Kingdom, founded in 1885 by a group of freethinkers who were unhappy with the increasingly political and decreasingly intellectual tenor ...
from 1947 until his death. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1963.
In 1965, he became the first president of the Agnostics' Adoption Society and in the same year succeeded
Julian Huxley as president of the
British Humanist Association
Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious b ...
, a post he held until 1970. In 1968 he edited ''The Humanist Outlook'', a collection of essays on the meaning of humanism. In addition he was one of the signers of the
Humanist Manifesto
''Humanist Manifesto'' is the title of three manifestos laying out a humanist worldview. They are the original '' Humanist Manifesto'' (1933, often referred to as Humanist Manifesto I), the ''Humanist Manifesto II'' (1973), and ''Humanism and I ...
.
Works
Ayer is best known for popularising the
verification principle, in particular through his presentation of it in ''
Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936). The principle was at the time at the heart of the debates of the so-called
Vienna Circle
The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, ch ...
which Ayer visited as a young guest. Others, including the leading light of the circle,
Moritz Schlick
Friedrich Albert Moritz Schlick (; ; 14 April 1882 – 22 June 1936) was a German philosopher, physicist, and the founding father of logical positivism and the Vienna Circle.
Early life and works
Schlick was born in Berlin to a wealthy Prussian f ...
, were already offering their own papers on the issue. Ayer's own formulation was that a sentence can be meaningful only if it has verifiable
empirical import; otherwise, it is either "
analytical" if
tautologous or "metaphysical" (i.e. meaningless, or "literally senseless"). He started to work on the book at the age of 23 and it was published when he was 26. Ayer's philosophical ideas were deeply influenced by those of the Vienna Circle and
David Hume
David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...
. His clear, vibrant and polemical exposition of them makes ''Language, Truth and Logic'' essential reading on the tenets of
logical empiricism
Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion of ...
; the book is regarded as a classic of 20th century
analytic philosophy, and is widely read in philosophy courses around the world. In it, Ayer also proposed that the distinction between a conscious man and an unconscious machine resolves itself into a distinction between "different types of perceptible behaviour", an argument that anticipates the
Turing test
The Turing test, originally called the imitation game by Alan Turing in 1950, is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. Turing proposed that a human evaluato ...
published in 1950 to test a machine's capability to demonstrate intelligence.
Ayer wrote two books on the philosopher
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
, ''Russell and Moore: The Analytic Heritage'' (1971) and ''Russell'' (1972). He also wrote an introductory book on the philosophy of
David Hume
David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...
and a short biography of
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...
.
Ayer was a strong critic of the German philosopher
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th ce ...
. As a logical positivist Ayer was in conflict with Heidegger's proposed vast, overarching theories regarding existence. These he felt were completely unverifiable through empirical demonstration and logical analysis, and this sort of philosophy an unfortunate strain in modern thought. He considered Heidegger to be the worst example of such philosophy, which Ayer believed to be entirely useless. In ''Philosophy in the Twentieth Century'' (1982) Ayer accuses Heidegger of "surprising ignorance" or "unscrupulous distortion" and "what can fairly be described as charlatanism."
In 1972–1973 Ayer gave the
Gifford Lectures
The Gifford Lectures () are an annual series of lectures which were established in 1887 by the will of Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford. Their purpose is to "promote and diffuse the study of natural theology in the widest sense of the term – in o ...
at the
University of St Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
, later published as ''The Central Questions of Philosophy''. In the preface to the book, he defends his selection to hold the lectureship on the basis that Lord Gifford wished to promote "
natural theology", in the widest sense of that term", and that non-believers are allowed to give the lectures if they are "able reverent men, true thinkers, sincere lovers of and earnest inquirers after truth". He still believed in the viewpoint he shared with the logical positivists: that large parts of what was traditionally called "philosophy"including the whole of
metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
, theology and
aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...
were not matters that could be judged as being true or false and that it was thus meaningless to discuss them.
In ''The Concept of a Person and Other Essays'' (1963), Ayer heavily criticized
Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrians, Austrian-British people, British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy o ...
's
private language argument
The private language argument argues that a language understandable by only a single individual is incoherent, and was introduced by Ludwig Wittgenstein in his later work, especially in the ''Philosophical Investigations''. The argument was cent ...
.
Ayer's sense-data theory in ''Foundations of Empirical Knowledge'' was famously criticised by fellow Oxonian
J. L. Austin
John Langshaw Austin (26 March 1911 – 8 February 1960) was a British philosopher of language and leading proponent of ordinary language philosophy, perhaps best known for developing the theory of speech acts.
Austin pointed out that we u ...
in ''
Sense and Sensibilia'', a landmark 1950s' work of common language philosophy. Ayer responded to this in the essay "Has Austin Refuted the Sense-datum Theory?",
which can be found in his ''Metaphysics and Common Sense'' (1969).
Awards
He was awarded a Knighthood as
Knight Bachelor
The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...
in the London Gazette on 1 January 1970.
Selected publications
* 1936, ''
Language, Truth, and Logic'', London: Gollancz., 2nd ed., with new introduction (1946)
* 1936,
"Causation and free will," ''
The Aryan Path''.
* 1940, ''
The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge'', London: Macmillan.
* 1954, ''
Philosophical Essays'', London: Macmillan. (Essays on freedom, phenomenalism, basic propositions, utilitarianism, other minds, the past, ontology.)
* 1957,
"The conception of probability as a logical relation", in
S. Korner, ed.,
''Observation and Interpretation in the Philosophy of Physics'', New York, N.Y.: Dover Publications.
* 1956, ''
The Problem of Knowledge'', London: Macmillan.
*1957,
"Logical Positivism - A Debate" (with
F. C. Copleston) in:
Edwards, Paul,
Pap, Arthur (eds.), ''A Modern Introduction to Philosophy; readings from classical and contemporary sources''
* 1963, ''
The Concept of a Person and Other Essays'', London: Macmillan. (Essays on truth, privacy and private languages, laws of nature, the concept of a person, probability.)
* 1967
"Has Austin Refuted the Sense-Datum Theory?"ref name=":3">listed (and reprinted) as
"Has Austin Refuted Sense-data?" in Fann. K.T. (ed.), ''
Symposium on J.L. Austin'' (1969) ''Synthese'' vol. XVIII, pp. 117–140. (Reprinted in Ayer 1969).
* 1968, ''
The Origins of Pragmatism'', London: Macmillan.
* 1969, ''
Metaphysics and Common Sense'', London: Macmillan. (Essays on knowledge, man as a subject for science, chance, philosophy and politics, existentialism, metaphysics, and a reply to Austin on sense-data theory
yer 1967)
* 1971, ''
Russell and Moore: The Analytical Heritage'', London: Macmillan.
* 1972, ''
Probability and Evidence'', London: Macmillan.
* 1972, ''
Russell'', London:
Fontana Modern Masters
The Fontana Modern Masters was a series of pocket guides on writers, philosophers, and other thinkers and theorists who shaped the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century. The first five titles were published on 12 January 1970 by Fontana ...
.
* 1973, ''
The Central Questions of Philosophy'', London: Weidenfeld.
* 1977, ''
Part of My Life'', London: Collins.
* 1979, "Replies", in G. F. Macdonald, ed., ''Perception and Identity: Essays Presented to A. J. Ayer, With His Replies'', London: Macmillan; Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
* 1980, ''
Hume'', Oxford: Oxford University Press
* 1982, ''
Philosophy in the Twentieth Century'', London: Weidenfeld.
* 1984, ''
Freedom and Morality and Other Essays'', Oxford: Clarendon Press.
* 1984, ''
More of My Life'', London: Collins.
* 1986, ''
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...
'', London: Penguin.
* 1986, ''
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...
'', New York: Random House.
* 1988, ''
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
'', London: Secker & Warburg.
* 1990, ''
The Meaning of Life and Other Essays'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
*1991,
"A Defense of Empiricism" in:
Griffiths, A. Phillips (ed.), ''
A. J. Ayer: Memorial Essays'' (Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements). Cambridge University Press.
* 1992,
"Intellectual Autobiography" and Repiies in: Lewis Edwin Hahn (ed.), ''
The Philosophy of A.J. Ayer (The Library of Living Philosophers Volume XXI)'', Open Court Publishing Co.
[Hahn (1992) also includes a comprehensive 27-page bibliography of Ayer's writings compiled by Guida Crowley.]
*For more complete publication details se
"The Philosophical Works of A. J. Ayer"(1979) and
"Bibliography of the writings of A.J. Ayer" (1992).
See also
*
''A priori'' knowledge
*
List of British philosophers
This page provides a list of British philosophers; of people who either worked within Great Britain, or the country's citizens working abroad.
__NOTOC__ A
* A.J. Ayer
B
* Francis Bacon
* Roger Bacon
* Julian Baggini
* Thomas Baldwin
* Alexa ...
References
Footnotes
Works cited
* Ayer, A.J. (1989)
"That undiscovered country" ''New Humanist'', Vol. 104 (1), May, pp. 10–13.
* Rogers, Ben (1999).
A.J. Ayer: A Life'. New York: Grove Press. .
''The New York Times'', 24 December 2000.)
*
Further reading
*
Jim Holt"Positive Thinking"(review of
Karl Sigmund, ''Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science'', Basic Books, 449 pp.), ''
The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', vol. LXIV, no. 20 (21 December 2017), pp. 74–76.
*
Ted Honderich
Ted Honderich (born 30 January 1933) is a Canadian-born British professor of philosophy, who was Grote Professor Emeritus of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic, University College London.
Biography
Honderich was born Edgar Dawn Ross Honderich o ...
Ayer's Philosophy and its Greatness
*
Anthony Quinton
Anthony Meredith Quinton, Baron Quinton, FBA (25 March 192519 June 2010) was a British political and moral philosopher, metaphysician, and materialist philosopher of mind. He served as President of Trinity College, Oxford from 1978 to 1987; a ...
Alfred Jules Ayer ''Proceedings of the British Academy'', 94 (1996), pp. 255–282.
* Graham Macdonald, Alfred Jules Ayer, ''
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', 7 May 2005.
*
External links
"Logical Positivism"(video) ''
Men of Ideas'' interview with
Bryan Magee
Bryan Edgar Magee (; 12 April 1930 – 26 July 2019) was a British philosopher, broadcaster, politician and author, best known for bringing philosophy to a popular audience.
Early life
Born of working-class parents in Hoxton, London, in 1930, w ...
(1978)
"Frege, Russell, and Modern Logic"(video) ''
The Great Philosophers'' interview with Bryan Magee (1987)
Ayer's Elizabeth Rathbone Lecture on Philosophy & PoliticsAyer entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyby
Alex Callinicos
Alexander Theodore Callinicos (born 24 July 1950) is a Rhodesian-born British political theorist and activist. An adherent of Trotskyism, he is a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and serves as its Internati ...
*
*
Appearance on Desert Island Discs - 3 August 1984*
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