Logical Positivism

by Alfred Jules Ayer (Editor)

"Of special value, partly because of its comprehensive authoritative introduction, partly because it translates for the first time important papers of the Vienna circle (Schlick, Carnap and Neurath). The book gives more than it promises, the text as well as the extensive bibliography including contributions of the analysts."-Hibbert Journal

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Essays, Academic, Science

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

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 humanist causes. He was the first vice president of the British Humanist Association and served as its president from 1965 to 1970. He was an Honorary Associate of the Rationalist Press Association from 1947 until his death. He was also an honorary member of the Bertrand Russell. In 1988, Ayer had a near-death experience in the United States after choking on salmon and subsequently losing consciousness. He wrote of his experience in “That Undiscovered Country” (New Humanist, May 1989): “My recent experiences have slightly weakened my conviction that my genuine death, which is due fairly soon, will be the end of me, though I continue to hope that it will be. They have not weakened my conviction that there is no god. I trust that my remaining an atheist will allay the anxieties of my fellow supporters of the British Humanist Association, the Rationalist Press Association and the South Place Ethical Society.” He died shortly after at age 78 in London. D. 1989.

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._J._Ayer

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ayer/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/AyerbyT...

http://badassphilosophers.tumblr.com/...

http://www.informationphilosopher.com...

Reviews

[Justin Yeary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of essays is well-formatted, detailed yet not impossible to understand, and gives a great general overview of the philosophical movement known as logical positivism that dominated Western philosophy for the first half of the 20th century. Ayer's choice in essays gives the reader a very diverse array of the varying viewpoints and opinions within the general group of logical positivism, and also does a great job at explaining the views of the Vienna Circle and their offspring. The essays contained within this collection are a must-read for anyone interested in 20th century philosophy, analytic philosophy, or logical positivism.

[Chant · Rating 4 out of 5]

AJ Ayer collects some very interesting and variety of papers from philosophers usually associated with logical positivism/logical atomism.

Of course the movement is now a relic of the first half of the 20th century, but it is still is fun and interesting to read some papers from these philosophers.

One of my favorite papers from this collection would be Carnap's 'the elimination of metaphysics through logical analysis of language' because he completely shits on the then contemporary "metaphysicians" and in particular Heidegger and his usage of vague and groundless assertions.

If you can find this book and interested in early analytic philosophy then you should read this book.

[Joshua Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ayer's collection on Logical Positivism is very good, though it doesn't focus as heavily on the original texts from the Vienna Circle as I would have liked. Still, Ayer is an amazing resource on the subject and the collection that he edited is very well done.

The critiques of ethics are especially good, though they tend to Ayer's emotivism as opposed to alternate versions of non-cognitivism. It's still really worth the read, if you have the time and the interest in the subject matter.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Logical Positivism is a book edited by A.J. Ayer. It collects a series of essays on the subject that streamline the viewpoints of the authors. I own the July 1966 second printing. Contributors include Bertrand Russell, Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Carl G. Hempel, Hans Hahn, Otto Neurath, A.J. Ayer, C.L. Stevenson, Frank D. Ramsey, Gilbert Ryle, and Friedrich Waismann.

Logical positivism, as a philosophy, was a movement within the empiricist tradition that sought to formulate a scientific philosophy in which philosophical discourse would be as authoritative and meaningful as empirical science. What does any of that mean? All I can do is break down each term used in the previous sentence, but that may not convey the proper meaning.

It had a principle it adhered to called the verifiability principle. Although it sought to filter out true statements, Popper and Quine demonstrated that it could not be proved by its own criteria.

Eventually, the movement was abandoned in the 1960s. The book I own stands as a testament against hubris. I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does this philosophical movement, represented by the dozen papers presented in this volume, mark the shifting of thinking away from the language-oriented problems of metaphysics, or does the linguistically-based philosophy of structuralism herald the shifting of the problems of philosophy into a territory that can only be charted by the non-linguistic and essentially quantitative scene of axiomatic science ? It appears that the main thrusts of philosophical inquiry, after logical positivism had run its course, either disappeared into power-politics, via the grammatological hair-splitting of the human sciences, or else was siphoned off into the propositions and sticking points of volumetric analysis. This division was effectively a split in the philosophy of education which had direct consequences for the political engagement of the postmodern consumer.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first introduction to Positivism was contra William James in a James upper division seminar but this collection of essays by major Positivists and also with one by Russell introducing Logical Atomism was particularly good. I most enjoyed the articles/works by Carnap and Schlick but Neurath and Hempel were also listed there. Mostly these help to explain why these ideas are such useful tools against metaphysical overextension. You might not agree with the overall scientific and linguistic aims of Positivism but this text will familiarize you somewhat with the direction that it points itself at, I don't think you would ever really understand a current philosophical Realist if you did not have some idea of the position of these philosophers.