Alfred Jules Ayer
English philosopher
Sir Alfred Jules Ayer was an English philosopher who set out the main ideas of logical positivism in Language, Truth, and Logic.
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British Born 1910 in London, United Kingdom Died 1989
About Alfred Jules Ayer
Ayer was born in London on 29 October 1910 and died on 27 June 1989. He was educated at the University of Oxford, then spent the winter of 1932 to 1933 studying and talking with members of the Vienna Circle, including Moritz Schlick. From 1933 to 1940 he lectured in philosophy at Christ Church, Oxford. Language, Truth, and Logic appeared in 1936 and made his name as a philosopher. Its rejection of metaphysics and its support for emotivism sparked much debate. He also wrote The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge, published in 1940, and The Problem of Knowledge, which came out in 1956. He held a professorship at University College London from 1946 to 1959, then returned to Oxford as Wykeham Professor of Logic. He was knighted in 1970. Ayer was also an advocate of humanism and served as president of the British Humanist Association from 1965 to 1970.