,

Alfred Jules Ayer


Born
in in London, England, The United Kingdom
October 29, 1910

Died
June 27, 1989

Website

Genre


In 1910, Sir Alfred Jules Ayer was born in London into a wealthy family. His father was a Swiss Calvinist and his mother was of Dutch-Jewish ancestry. Ayer attended Eton College and studied philosophy and Greek at Oxford University. From 1946 to 1959, he taught philosophy at University College London. He then became Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. Ayer was knighted in 1970. Included among his many works are The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (1940), The Problem of Knowledge (1956), The Origins of Pragmatism (1968), Metaphysics and Common Sense (1969), Bertrand Russell (1972) and Hume (1980), about philosopher David Hume. Later in life, Ayer frequently identified himself as an atheist and became active in humani ...more

Average rating: 3.71 · 5,523 ratings · 332 reviews · 86 distinct worksSimilar authors
Language, Truth and Logic

3.75 avg rating — 4,231 ratings — published 1936 — 98 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Hume: A Very Short Introduc...

3.13 avg rating — 368 ratings — published 1980 — 19 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Logical Positivism

3.90 avg rating — 145 ratings — published 1966 — 10 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Problem of Knowledge

3.57 avg rating — 138 ratings — published 1956 — 28 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Central Questions of Philos...

3.83 avg rating — 64 ratings — published 1973 — 12 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Philosophy in the Twentieth...

3.64 avg rating — 53 ratings — published 1982 — 9 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Wittgenstein

3.34 avg rating — 56 ratings — published 1986 — 13 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Bertrand Russell

3.60 avg rating — 47 ratings — published 1972 — 15 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
A Dictionary of Philosophic...

4.03 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 1992 — 5 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Foundations of Empirica...

3.81 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1940 — 15 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
More books by Alfred Jules Ayer…
Quotes by Alfred Jules Ayer  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“I do not believe in God. It seems to me that theists of all kinds have very largely failed to make their concept of a deity intelligible; and to the extent that they have made it intelligible, they have given us no reason to think that anything answers to it.”
A.J. Ayer

“... when one buys a pair of shoes, one is buying three things, the right shoe, the left shoe and the pair.”
Alfred Jules Ayer, Bertrand Russell

“To predict tomorrow's weather, I need not take into account the state of mind of the Emperor of Manchukuo.”
A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic