Language, Truth and Logic - A. J. Ayer

Language is key

I read Ayer's obituary in the Telegraph and he seemed like an interesting man, so I bought this book.

As a teenage layperson, I found it VERY heavy-going, I kept a dictionary nearby to refer to and my copy is littered with notes to myself on word meanings. It was worth the perseverance to discover so much. His debunking of inexact, ambiguous metaphysics really helped me to make the switch from being a wooley agnostic to a fully confirmed atheist.

Say what you like about positive optimism, it's Ayer's use and insistance of the importance of accuracy of meaning and expression in communication that I responded to.

This book modified my outlook on life and I have given away and bought the book 4 times now.

pure genius

AJ Ayer is dead. Is there any philosopher in the world that would like to tell him otherwise?

Of Antiquarian Interest Only...

Ayer's book was indeed groundbreaking - it made Logical Positivism the new cool topic in English philosophy. However, it now needs to be read with a healthy dose of scepticism. Ayer's arguments on the Verification Principle have been shown to be deeply misguided and internally inconsistent. Moreover, sophisticated analysis of language has moved on from Ayer's dogmatic reductionism. Those interested in the development of logical philosophy may find it of interest, but even when published this book was already out of date (Compare it with Frege's writings of the late 19th century), and nowadays is more of an amusing "rant" than any serious examination of the topic.

Provocative and magnificent

Language, Truth and Logic was the book that got me into philosophy. It is a model of how we should write in the discipline - Ayer's prose is witty, fresh and crystal clear. Reading it is like being struck by a bolt from heaven - while Ayer wasn't expounding his own ideas, his is by far the best exposition of Logical Positivism and one of the best pieces of philosophical exposition ever written. Worth taking with a pinch of salt - Ayer was on the right lines, but in the final analysis this is too iconoclastic (as he himself eventually admitted). Still, if you want to read a book that will take you by the scruff of the neck, shake you vigorously and make you look at the world in a completely new way, then this is exactly what need.

Experience is seated at the head of the table in this work.

How can metaphysics be real if we cannot verify it? This is the maint question in which this book deals. Logic and experience are seen as providing the main area in which we should concentrate our philosophical efforts and many convincing arguments are employed. I feel this is can be argued at the expense of imagination, a property which can be implemented in some of our questions.

Language is key

I read Ayer's obituary in the Telegraph and he seemed like an interesting man, so I bought this book.

As a teenage layperson, I found it VERY heavy-going, I kept a dictionary nearby to refer to and my copy is littered with notes to myself on word meanings. It was worth the perseverance to discover so much. His debunking of inexact, ambiguous metaphysics really helped me to make the switch from being a wooley agnostic to a fully confirmed atheist.

Say what you like about positive optimism, it's Ayer's use and insistance of the importance of accuracy of meaning and expression in communication that I responded to.

This book modified my outlook on life and I have given away and bought the book 4 times now.

pure genius

AJ Ayer is dead. Is there any philosopher in the world that would like to tell him otherwise?

Of Antiquarian Interest Only...

Ayer's book was indeed groundbreaking - it made Logical Positivism the new cool topic in English philosophy. However, it now needs to be read with a healthy dose of scepticism. Ayer's arguments on the Verification Principle have been shown to be deeply misguided and internally inconsistent. Moreover, sophisticated analysis of language has moved on from Ayer's dogmatic reductionism. Those interested in the development of logical philosophy may find it of interest, but even when published this book was already out of date (Compare it with Frege's writings of the late 19th century), and nowadays is more of an amusing "rant" than any serious examination of the topic.

Provocative and magnificent

Language, Truth and Logic was the book that got me into philosophy. It is a model of how we should write in the discipline - Ayer's prose is witty, fresh and crystal clear. Reading it is like being struck by a bolt from heaven - while Ayer wasn't expounding his own ideas, his is by far the best exposition of Logical Positivism and one of the best pieces of philosophical exposition ever written. Worth taking with a pinch of salt - Ayer was on the right lines, but in the final analysis this is too iconoclastic (as he himself eventually admitted). Still, if you want to read a book that will take you by the scruff of the neck, shake you vigorously and make you look at the world in a completely new way, then this is exactly what need.

Experience is seated at the head of the table in this work.

How can metaphysics be real if we cannot verify it? This is the maint question in which this book deals. Logic and experience are seen as providing the main area in which we should concentrate our philosophical efforts and many convincing arguments are employed. I feel this is can be argued at the expense of imagination, a property which can be implemented in some of our questions.

Language is key

I read Ayer's obituary in the Telegraph and he seemed like an interesting man, so I bought this book.

As a teenage layperson, I found it VERY heavy-going, I kept a dictionary nearby to refer to and my copy is littered with notes to myself on word meanings. It was worth the perseverance to discover so much. His debunking of inexact, ambiguous metaphysics really helped me to make the switch from being a wooley agnostic to a fully confirmed atheist.

Say what you like about positive optimism, it's Ayer's use and insistance of the importance of accuracy of meaning and expression in communication that I responded to.

This book modified my outlook on life and I have given away and bought the book 4 times now.

pure genius

AJ Ayer is dead. Is there any philosopher in the world that would like to tell him otherwise?

Of Antiquarian Interest Only...

Ayer's book was indeed groundbreaking - it made Logical Positivism the new cool topic in English philosophy. However, it now needs to be read with a healthy dose of scepticism. Ayer's arguments on the Verification Principle have been shown to be deeply misguided and internally inconsistent. Moreover, sophisticated analysis of language has moved on from Ayer's dogmatic reductionism. Those interested in the development of logical philosophy may find it of interest, but even when published this book was already out of date (Compare it with Frege's writings of the late 19th century), and nowadays is more of an amusing "rant" than any serious examination of the topic.

Provocative and magnificent

Language, Truth and Logic was the book that got me into philosophy. It is a model of how we should write in the discipline - Ayer's prose is witty, fresh and crystal clear. Reading it is like being struck by a bolt from heaven - while Ayer wasn't expounding his own ideas, his is by far the best exposition of Logical Positivism and one of the best pieces of philosophical exposition ever written. Worth taking with a pinch of salt - Ayer was on the right lines, but in the final analysis this is too iconoclastic (as he himself eventually admitted). Still, if you want to read a book that will take you by the scruff of the neck, shake you vigorously and make you look at the world in a completely new way, then this is exactly what need.

Experience is seated at the head of the table in this work.

How can metaphysics be real if we cannot verify it? This is the maint question in which this book deals. Logic and experience are seen as providing the main area in which we should concentrate our philosophical efforts and many convincing arguments are employed. I feel this is can be argued at the expense of imagination, a property which can be implemented in some of our questions.

Language is key

I read Ayer's obituary in the Telegraph and he seemed like an interesting man, so I bought this book.

As a teenage layperson, I found it VERY heavy-going, I kept a dictionary nearby to refer to and my copy is littered with notes to myself on word meanings. It was worth the perseverance to discover so much. His debunking of inexact, ambiguous metaphysics really helped me to make the switch from being a wooley agnostic to a fully confirmed atheist.

Say what you like about positive optimism, it's Ayer's use and insistance of the importance of accuracy of meaning and expression in communication that I responded to.

This book modified my outlook on life and I have given away and bought the book 4 times now.

pure genius

AJ Ayer is dead. Is there any philosopher in the world that would like to tell him otherwise?

Of Antiquarian Interest Only...

Ayer's book was indeed groundbreaking - it made Logical Positivism the new cool topic in English philosophy. However, it now needs to be read with a healthy dose of scepticism. Ayer's arguments on the Verification Principle have been shown to be deeply misguided and internally inconsistent. Moreover, sophisticated analysis of language has moved on from Ayer's dogmatic reductionism. Those interested in the development of logical philosophy may find it of interest, but even when published this book was already out of date (Compare it with Frege's writings of the late 19th century), and nowadays is more of an amusing "rant" than any serious examination of the topic.

Provocative and magnificent

Language, Truth and Logic was the book that got me into philosophy. It is a model of how we should write in the discipline - Ayer's prose is witty, fresh and crystal clear. Reading it is like being struck by a bolt from heaven - while Ayer wasn't expounding his own ideas, his is by far the best exposition of Logical Positivism and one of the best pieces of philosophical exposition ever written. Worth taking with a pinch of salt - Ayer was on the right lines, but in the final analysis this is too iconoclastic (as he himself eventually admitted). Still, if you want to read a book that will take you by the scruff of the neck, shake you vigorously and make you look at the world in a completely new way, then this is exactly what need.

Experience is seated at the head of the table in this work.

How can metaphysics be real if we cannot verify it? This is the maint question in which this book deals. Logic and experience are seen as providing the main area in which we should concentrate our philosophical efforts and many convincing arguments are employed. I feel this is can be argued at the expense of imagination, a property which can be implemented in some of our questions.

Language is key

I read Ayer's obituary in the Telegraph and he seemed like an interesting man, so I bought this book.

As a teenage layperson, I found it VERY heavy-going, I kept a dictionary nearby to refer to and my copy is littered with notes to myself on word meanings. It was worth the perseverance to discover so much. His debunking of inexact, ambiguous metaphysics really helped me to make the switch from being a wooley agnostic to a fully confirmed atheist.

Say what you like about positive optimism, it's Ayer's use and insistance of the importance of accuracy of meaning and expression in communication that I responded to.

This book modified my outlook on life and I have given away and bought the book 4 times now.

pure genius

AJ Ayer is dead. Is there any philosopher in the world that would like to tell him otherwise?

Of Antiquarian Interest Only...

Ayer's book was indeed groundbreaking - it made Logical Positivism the new cool topic in English philosophy. However, it now needs to be read with a healthy dose of scepticism. Ayer's arguments on the Verification Principle have been shown to be deeply misguided and internally inconsistent. Moreover, sophisticated analysis of language has moved on from Ayer's dogmatic reductionism. Those interested in the development of logical philosophy may find it of interest, but even when published this book was already out of date (Compare it with Frege's writings of the late 19th century), and nowadays is more of an amusing "rant" than any serious examination of the topic.

Provocative and magnificent

Language, Truth and Logic was the book that got me into philosophy. It is a model of how we should write in the discipline - Ayer's prose is witty, fresh and crystal clear. Reading it is like being struck by a bolt from heaven - while Ayer wasn't expounding his own ideas, his is by far the best exposition of Logical Positivism and one of the best pieces of philosophical exposition ever written. Worth taking with a pinch of salt - Ayer was on the right lines, but in the final analysis this is too iconoclastic (as he himself eventually admitted). Still, if you want to read a book that will take you by the scruff of the neck, shake you vigorously and make you look at the world in a completely new way, then this is exactly what need.

Experience is seated at the head of the table in this work.

How can metaphysics be real if we cannot verify it? This is the maint question in which this book deals. Logic and experience are seen as providing the main area in which we should concentrate our philosophical efforts and many convincing arguments are employed. I feel this is can be argued at the expense of imagination, a property which can be implemented in some of our questions.

Classic work of British analytic philosophy

This book expresses the core theory of Logical Positivism in its more developed form. In short: a factually significant proposition (i.e. a proposition that actually says something about the observable world) must be verifiable or falsifiable at least in principle, by some possible observations which would increase or decrease the probability of the propostion being true. The only other meaningful statements are tautologies, they say the same thing twice: a tautology is true of false in virtue of the defintions of terms used. Or put another way, in analytic language one may say anything they want and make up any defintions with the one condition that one may not contradict oneself. This doctrine (of logical positivism in general) derives from classic empiricism, which asserts that all knowledge of the world must derive solely from sense-data (using our 5 senses) and our human ability to conceptualise and organise such data.
From these claims, Ayer developes the emotivist theory of values and argues that literal assertions about God, of any supernatural entity, or of literally 'good' or 'evil' behaviour are literally senseless (they say nothing at all about the empirical world). Religious and moral language do, of course, have aethetic value in so much as they express how we feel about the world.
He also explains how Mathematical reasoning is possible and how Mathematically theories can be described as 'true' - Maths is a form of analytic reasoning so that a Mathematician may say anything he wants and define any symbol however he wants (i.e. lays down axioms and definitions) so long as he does not contradict himself. Theorums can be derived by carefully investigating what is implied by these axioms and defintions.

Language, Truth and Logic is not too long (it can be read in about 6 hours or so) but clearly and systematically developes a coherant account of human logic. Ayer answers many classic problems in Philosophy while at it - problems such as God, monism vs pluralism etc can often be reduced to meaninglessness. He attempts to answer the problem of whether there is any reason to believe in other minds, through analogy of observable body to unobservable mind, but he himself (in his introduction) admits that he had not resolved the dialema altogether (e.g. it may still be questioned why other material bodies may behave as humans without experiencing sensations like you yourself do [assuming you yourself have a mind!].)

This work ranks alongside Russell's 'Problems of Philosophy' and Russell and Whitehead's 'Principle's of Mathematics' as one of the key works of early 20th Century analytic philosophy; crucial to anyone with an interest in Philosophy (or to some extent any Science).

Language is key

I read Ayer's obituary in the Telegraph and he seemed like an interesting man, so I bought this book.

As a teenage layperson, I found it VERY heavy-going, I kept a dictionary nearby to refer to and my copy is littered with notes to myself on word meanings. It was worth the perseverance to discover so much. His debunking of inexact, ambiguous metaphysics really helped me to make the switch from being a wooley agnostic to a fully confirmed atheist.

Say what you like about positive optimism, it's Ayer's use and insistance of the importance of accuracy of meaning and expression in communication that I responded to.

This book modified my outlook on life and I have given away and bought the book 4 times now.

pure genius

AJ Ayer is dead. Is there any philosopher in the world that would like to tell him otherwise?

Of Antiquarian Interest Only...

Ayer's book was indeed groundbreaking - it made Logical Positivism the new cool topic in English philosophy. However, it now needs to be read with a healthy dose of scepticism. Ayer's arguments on the Verification Principle have been shown to be deeply misguided and internally inconsistent. Moreover, sophisticated analysis of language has moved on from Ayer's dogmatic reductionism. Those interested in the development of logical philosophy may find it of interest, but even when published this book was already out of date (Compare it with Frege's writings of the late 19th century), and nowadays is more of an amusing "rant" than any serious examination of the topic.

Provocative and magnificent

Language, Truth and Logic was the book that got me into philosophy. It is a model of how we should write in the discipline - Ayer's prose is witty, fresh and crystal clear. Reading it is like being struck by a bolt from heaven - while Ayer wasn't expounding his own ideas, his is by far the best exposition of Logical Positivism and one of the best pieces of philosophical exposition ever written. Worth taking with a pinch of salt - Ayer was on the right lines, but in the final analysis this is too iconoclastic (as he himself eventually admitted). Still, if you want to read a book that will take you by the scruff of the neck, shake you vigorously and make you look at the world in a completely new way, then this is exactly what need.