Ayer, Sir A J

Ayer, Sir A(lfred) J(ules)

(born Oct. 29, 1910, London, Eng.—died June 27, 1989, London) British philosopher. He taught at University College London (1946–59) and later at Oxford (1959–78). He gained international notice in 1936 with the publication of his first book, Language, Truth and Logic, a manifesto of logical positivism that drew on the ideas of the Vienna Circle and the tradition of British empiricism as represented by David Hume and Bertrand Russell. He is also remembered for his contributions to epistemology and his writings on the history of Anglo-American philosophy (see also analytic philosophy). His other works include The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (1940), The Problem of Knowledge (1956), The Origins of Pragmatism (1968), Russell and Moore (1971), The Central Questions of Philosophy (1973), and Wittgenstein (1985).