Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by A. J. Ayer (English Philosopher)

A. J. Ayer (1910–89,) fully Sir Alfred Jules “Freddie” Ayer, was an English philosopher and educator. One of the most influential British philosophers of the 20th century, he was a leading proponent of logical positivism. He was connected with the Vienna Circle of Logical Empiricism in the 1930s.

Born in London and educated at Eton and Oxford, Ayer was a pupil of the English philosopher Gilbert Ryle. During World War II, Ayer served with the Welsh Guards and afterward as an attaché at the British Embassy in Paris (1945.) He became Grote Professor at University College London (1947) and was later Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford (1959–78.)

Ayer’s first and most important book, Language, Truth, and Logic (1936,) was a lucid, concise, and forceful account of the anti-metaphysical doctrines of the Vienna Circle of philosophers, whom he visited in 1932. Ayer’s iconoclastic dismissal of moral and religious discourse aroused great hostility and was even termed the ‘young man’s book.’

Although Ayer’s views changed considerably after the 1930s, becoming more moderate and increasingly subtle, he remained loyal to empiricism. His later publications include The Problem of Knowledge (1956) and The Central Questions of Philosophy (1972.)

Ayer was also known for his advocacy of humanism and was the second President of the British Humanist Association. He was named a fellow of the British Academy in 1952 and was knighted in 1970. British researcher Ben Rogers wrote the biography A J Ayer: A Life (1999.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by A. J. Ayer

To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.
A. J. Ayer
Topics: Control, Authority

The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful.
A. J. Ayer
Topics: Philosophy, Philosophers

There never comes a point where a theory can be said to be true. The most that one can claim for any theory is that it has shared the successes of all its rivals and that it has passed at least one test which they have failed.
A. J. Ayer
Topics: Assumptions, Theory

While moral rules may be propounded by authority the fact that these were so propounded would not validate them.
A. J. Ayer
Topics: Morals, Morality

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