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A. J. Ayer
Sign in to saveAlso known as Alfred Jules Ayer, Alfred J. Ayer, Sir Alfred Jules Ayer, Freddie
English philosopher
OverviewAI-generated
A. J. Ayer (1910–1989) was a British philosopher, philosopher of science, and university teacher. Born in London, he was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, where he later served as an employer. He held positions at University College London, Wadham College, and New College. Ayer was a member of the logical positivism movement and an atheist. His fields of work included epistemology, philosophical logic, ethics, and logical positivism.
During World War II, Ayer served in the British Army. He was influenced by Bertrand Russell, Rudolf Carnap, and Gilbert Ryle. Ayer earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree and was a doctoral supervisor to Peter Unger. He was recognized as a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among his works are *The Origin of Pragmatism*, *Russell and Moore*, *Thinking and Meaning*, *The foundations of empirical knowledge*, and *Problem of Knowledge*.
Synthesized by Vinony from 34 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Open Library, Wikiquote, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 22
Top works
- The Origin of Pragmatism
- Russell and Moore
- Thinking and Meaning (London University College)
- The foundations of empirical knowledge
- Problem of Knowledge (Pelican)
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 1
- Total plays
- 6
<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/A.+J.+Ayer">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
· 2018 · cited 10,992x
- Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
· 2018 · cited 6,184x
- Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
· 2018 · cited 3,907x
- Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016
· 2018 · cited 2,649x
- Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 359 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
· 2018 · cited 2,530x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “There is philosophy, which is about conceptual analysis — about the meaning of what we say — and there is all of this … all of life.”
- “I am using the word "perceive". I am using it here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word. If there is thought to be a difficulty here, it is perhaps because there is also a correct and familiar usage of the word "perceive", in which to say of an object that it is perceived does carry the implication that it exists.”
- “No moral system can rest solely on authority.”
- “I see philosophy as a fairly abstract activity, as concerned mainly with the analysis of criticism and concepts, and of course most usefully of scientific concepts.”
- “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.”
- “It seems that I have spent my entire time trying to make life more rational and that it was all wasted effort.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Core ideas
Verification principle
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “A. J. Ayer” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.