Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. First published in 1936 when he was only 24, this work shook the foundations of Anglo- American philosophy and made its author notorious. Ayer rejected metaphysical claims about God, the absolute, and objective values as completely nonsensical. It became a classic text, cleared away the cobwebs in philosophical thinking, and has been enormously influential. Ayer was only 24 when he finished LANGUAGE, TRUTH & LOGIC, yet it shook the foundations of Anglo-American philosophy and made its author notorious. Ayer rejected metaphysical claims about god, the absolute, and objective values as completely nonsensical. Ayer put forward the verification principle, the idea that in order to be meaningful, statements must be tautological (true by definition, or because of the meaning of the words involved) or empirically verifiable (scientific). Statements are either true by definition (as in maths), or can be verified by direct experience. If you can't prove something, it is literally senseless - so argues Ayer in this irreverent and electrifying book.

About the Author:īook Description Paperback. The basic thesis of this work is that philosophy should not squander its energies upon the unknowable, but should perform its proper function in criticism and analysis. You will also learn how to distinguish ideas that cannot be verified by experience-those expressing religious, moral, or aesthetic experience, those expounding theological or metaphysical doctrine, and those dealing with a priori truth. Ayers sets up specific tests by which you can easily evaluate statements of ideas. A first-rate antidote for fuzzy thought and muddled writing, this remarkable book has helped philosophers, writers, speakers, teachers, students, and general readers alike. It not only surveys one of the most important areas of modern thought it also shows the confusion that arises from imperfect understanding of the uses of language. I should like to have written it myself.'-Bertrand Russellįirst published in 1936, this first full-length presentation in English of the Logical Positivism of Carnap, Neurath, and others has gone through many printings to become a classic of thought and communication.

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