Product Description

If you can't prove something, it is literally senseless - so argues Ayer in this irreverent and electrifying book. Statements are either true by definition (as in maths), or can be verified by direct experience. Ayer rejected metaphysical claims about god, the absolute, and objective values as completely nonsensical. Ayer was only 24 when he finished LANGUAGE, TRUTH & LOGIC, yet it shook the foundations of Anglo-American philosophy and made its author notorious. It became a classic text, cleared away the cobwebs in philosophical thinking, and has been enormously influential.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22112 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
Sir Alfred Ayer caused a furore with the publication of his LANGUAGE, TRUTH & LOGIC in 1936, when he was only 24. From 1959 until 1978 he was Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. He died in 1989. Ben Rogers is the author of A. J.AYER: A LIFE (Chatto & Windus 1999, Vintage 2000).

Customer Reviews

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in the development of logical philosophy may find it of interest, but even when published this book was already out of date (Compare it with Frege's writings of the late 19th century), and nowadays is more of an amusing "rant" than any serious examination of the topic.