In fairness, as he explains in his introduction to the 1946 edition (included here) Ayer himself realised many of the shortcomings of Language Truth and Logic. On the one hand his dismissal of metaphysics doesn't mean that other philosophers are prevented from metaphysical enquiry, and on the other hand by raising language to the status of a sort of knowledge above and beyond that which is experienced he could be accused of treating it as a form of metaphysics. This made rather radical charges against philosophy itself, such as asserting that metaphysics was simply nonsense, that questions of value were nonexistent and that philosophers should concern themselves almost solely with language.Īll very interesting, and presented by Ayer in such a confident manner that it is easy to miss the fact that it might not actually be reasonable.

His Language, Truth and Logic, first published in 1936 presents a modified version of logical positivism which he called 'logical empiricism'. This was the school of 'Logical Positivism', and it was AJ Ayer who is chiefly remembered for popularising it in England. This so-called 'Vienna Circle' dedicated themselves to reconciling philosophy with the new sciences and so determined to take it upon themselves to evaluate truth solely in terms of the empirical verifiability or logic of language. Round about 1920 a gang of philosophers including Rudolph Carnap and Kurt Godel started meeting in Vienna. INTRODUCTION TO Language, Truth and Logic Copyright may exist on the original work. © This page does not contain Language, Truth and Logic, but a short abridgement for private study and research only. Wikipedia - Full Text - Print Edition: ISBN 0486200108 Simply because we never allow them to be anything else.' 'The principles of logic and mathematics are true Squashed down to read in about 50 minutes

Squashed Philosophers - Ayer - Language, Truth and Logic

Language, Truth, and Logic by A.J. Ayer