Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer ( ; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989) was an English philosopher known for his promotion of

logical positivism Logical positivism, also known as logical empiricism or neo-positivism, was a philosophical movement, in the empiricist tradition, that sought to formulate a scientific philosophy in which philosophical discourse would be, in the perception of ...

, particularly in his books '' Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) and ''The Problem of Knowledge'' (1956). Ayer was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, after which he studied the philosophy of logical positivism at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. From 1933 to 1940 he lectured on philosophy at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Ayer was a

Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...

and MI6 agent. Ayer was Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

from 1946 until 1959, after which he returned to Oxford to become Wykeham Professor of Logic at New College. He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1951 to 1952 and knighted in 1970. He was known for his advocacy of

humanism Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and Agency (philosophy), agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The me ...

, 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 non-religious people in the UK through a mixture of charitable servic ...

(now known as Humanists UK). Ayer was president of the Homosexual Law Reform Society for a time; he remarked, "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 London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the Civil Parish#An ...

, 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 mainland 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 som ...

. His mother was from the Dutch-Jewish family that founded the

Citroën Citroën ()The double-dot diacritic over the 'e' is a diaeresis () indicating the two vowels are sounded separately, and not as a diphthong. is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded on 4 June 19 ...

car company in France; his father was a Swiss

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

financier who worked for the

Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt. The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, ...

, 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. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, where he started boarding at the relatively early age of seven for reasons to do with the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and at

, where he was a King's Scholar. At Eton Ayer first became known for his characteristic bravado and precocity. Though primarily interested in 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 A corporal punishment or a physical punishment is a punishment which is intended to cause physical pain to a person. When it is inflicted on Minor (law), minors, especially in home and school settings, its methods may include spanking or Padd ...

at the school. He won a classics scholarship to

. He graduated with a BA with first-class honours. After graduating from Oxford, Ayer spent a year in Vienna, returned to England and published his first book, '' Language, Truth and Logic'', in 1936. This first exposition in English of

as newly developed by the Vienna Circle, made Ayer at age 26 the ''enfant terrible'' of British philosophy. As a newly famous intellectual, he 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, held on 27 October 1938, was quite close, with Hogg winning narrowly. In the Second World War, Ayer served as an officer in the Welsh Guards, chiefly in intelligence (

(SOE) and MI6). He was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Welsh Guards from the Officer Cadet Training Unit on 21 September 1940. After the war, Ayer briefly returned to the

where he became a fellow and Dean of Wadham College. He then taught philosophy at

from 1946 until 1959, during which time he started to appear on radio and television. He was an extrovert and social mixer who liked dancing and attending 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 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 could also be intimidating. Ayer was married four times to three women. His first marriage was from 1932 to 1941, to (Grace Isabel) Renée, with whom he had a sonallegedly the son of Ayer's friend and colleague Stuart Hampshireand a daughter. Renée subsequently married Hampshire. In 1960, Ayer married Alberta Constance (Dee) Wells, with whom he had one son. That marriage was dissolved in 1983, and the same year, Ayer married Vanessa Salmon, the former wife of politician Nigel Lawson. She died in 1985, and in 1989 Ayer remarried Wells, who survived him. He 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 said he went only because of the offer of a "free trip". He gave a speech on why

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to s ...

's conceptions of liberty and freedom were still valid in 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 (Oxford), Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Trevor-Rope ...

, Ayer fought against Arthur Koestler and Franz Borkenau, arguing that they were far too dogmatic and extreme in their anti-communism, in fact proposing illiberal measures in the defence of liberty. Adding to the tension was the location of the congress in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

, together with the fact that the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

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, Ayer 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 as a visiting professor at

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

in 1987. At a party that same year held by fashion designer Fernando Sanchez, Ayer confronted Mike Tyson, who was forcing himself upon the then little-known model Naomi Campbell. When Ayer demanded that Tyson stop, Tyson 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. Gully Wells, Ayer's stepdaughter via Dee Wells, records the same event with some slight variation of detail. Ayer was also involved in politics, including anti-Vietnam War activism, supporting the Labour Party (and later the Social Democratic Party), chairing the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination in Sport, and serving as president of the Homosexual Law Reform Society. In 1988, a year before his death, Ayer wrote an article titled "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 describe as having similar characteristics. When positive, which the great majority are, such experiences may encompa ...

after his heart stopped for four minutes as he choked on smoked salmon. Of the experience, he 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." 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 he lived at 51 York Street,

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropo ...

, 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 is 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). In later years, Ayer reiterated that he did not believe in God and began to call himself 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 philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

by debating religion with the Jesuit scholar Frederick Copleston. Ayer's version of

emotivism Emotivism is a meta-ethics, meta-ethical view that claims that ethical Sentence (linguistics), sentences do not express propositions but emotional attitudes. Hence, it is colloquially known as the hurrah/boo theory. Influenced by the growth of anal ...

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 judgements" He focuses on propositions of the first classmoral judgementssaying that those of the second class belong to science, those of the third are mere commands, and those of the fourth (which are considered

normative ethics Normative ethics is the study of ethics, ethical behaviour and is the branch of Philosophy, philosophical ethics that investigates questions regarding how one ought to act, in a Morality, moral sense. Normative ethics is distinct from metaethics i ...

as opposed to

meta-ethics In metaphilosophy and ethics, metaethics is the study of the nature, scope, ground, and meaning of moral judgment, ethical belief, or values. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normativ ...

) are too concrete for ethical philosophy. Ayer argues that moral judgements 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 Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

, Ayer contributed a series of articles to '' Polemic'', 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, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...

movement. He was an Honorary Associate of the Rationalist Press Association 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 (The Academy) 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, and other ...

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

, a post he held until 1970. In 1968 he edited ''The Humanist Outlook'', a collection of essays on the meaning of humanism. He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.

Works

Ayer is best known for popularising the verification principle, in particular through his presentation of it in '' Language, Truth, and Logic''. The principle was at the time at the heart of the debates of the so-called Vienna Circle, which Ayer had visited as a young guest. Others, including the circle's leading light, Moritz Schlick, were already writing papers on the issue. Ayer's formulation was that a sentence can be meaningful only if it has verifiable

empirical Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience or experimental procedure. It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law. There is no general agreement on how t ...

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; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...

. His clear, vibrant and polemical exposition of them makes ''Language, Truth and Logic'' essential reading on the tenets of logical empiricism; the book is regarded as a classic of 20th-century

analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...

and is widely read in philosophy courses around the world. In it, Ayer also proposes 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 1949,. Turing wrote about the ‘imitation game’ centrally and extensively throughout his 1950 text, but apparently retired the term thereafter. He referred to ‘ iste ...

published in 1950 to test a machine's capability to demonstrate intelligence. Ayer wrote two books on the philosopher

, ''Russell and Moore: The Analytic Heritage'' (1971) and ''Russell'' (1972). He also wrote an introductory book on the philosophy of

and a short biography of

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

. Ayer was a strong critic of the German philosopher

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

. As a logical positivist, Ayer was in conflict with Heidegger's vast, overarching theories of existence. Ayer considered them completely unverifiable through empirical demonstration and logical analysis, and this sort of philosophy an unfortunate strain in modern thought. He considered Heidegger the worst example of such philosophy, which Ayer believed entirely useless. In ''Philosophy in the Twentieth Century'', Ayer accuses Heidegger of "surprising ignorance" or "unscrupulous distortion" and "what can fairly be described as charlatanism." In 1972–73, Ayer gave the Gifford Lectures at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, later published as ''The Central Questions of Philosophy''. In the book's preface, he defends his selection to hold the lectureship on the basis that Lord Gifford wished to promote "

natural theology Natural theology is a type of theology that seeks to provide arguments for theological topics, such as the existence of a deity, based on human reason. It is distinguished from revealed theology, which is based on supernatural sources such as ...

, 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 philosophyincluding

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

, theology and

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

were not matters that could be judged true or false, and that it was thus meaningless to discuss them. In ''The Concept of a Person and Other Essays'' (1963), Ayer heavily criticised

Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

's private language argument. Ayer's sense-data theory in ''Foundations of Empirical Knowledge'' was famously criticised by fellow Oxonian J. L. Austin in '' Sense and Sensibilia'', a landmark 1950s work of ordinary language philosophy. Ayer responded in the essay "Has Austin Refuted the Sense-datum Theory?", which can be found in his ''Metaphysics and Common Sense'' (1969).

Awards

Ayer 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 Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

in the London Gazette on 1 January 1970.

Collections

Ayer's biographer, Ben Rogers, deposited 7 boxes of research material accumulated through the writing process at

in 2007. The material was donated in collaboration with Ayer's family.

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 S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet. S may also refer to: History * an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics * Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where "s ...

, ed., ''Observation and Interpretation in the Philosophy of Physics'', New York: 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. * 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 philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

'', London: Penguin. * 1986, ''

'', 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 ...

'', London: Secker & Warburg. * 1990, '' The Meaning of Life and Other Essays'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson. *1991, "A Defence of Empiricism" in: Griffiths, A. Phillips (ed.), '' A. J. Ayer: Memorial Essays'' (Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements). Cambridge University Press. * 1992, "Intellectual Autobiography" and Replies 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 Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...

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).

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.) *

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, ...

(1978)
"Frege, Russell, and Modern Logic"
(video) '' The Great Philosophers'' interview with Bryan Magee (1987)
Ayer's Elizabeth Rathbone Lecture on Philosophy & Politics

Ayer entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

by Alex Callinicos * *
Appearance on Desert Island Discs – 3 August 1984
*
Ayer (Rogers) Papers
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayer, Alfred Vienna Circle 20th-century philosophers Analytic philosophers Bard College faculty British Army personnel of World War II Atheist philosophers English atheists English humanists English philosophers Logical positivism Philosophers of language Philosophers of science Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford Academics of University College London British Special Operations Executive personnel Knights Bachelor People educated at Eton College Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford English people of Dutch-Jewish descent English people of Swiss descent Jewish atheists Jewish philosophers People from St John's Wood 1910 births 1989 deaths Wykeham Professors of Logic Welsh Guards officers Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Linguistic turn Presidents of the Aristotelian Society 20th-century atheists Fellows of the British Academy