A.J. Ayer: A LifeFreddie Ayer (1910-89) was one of the most influential philosophers of his generation, while his television and radio appearances made him Britain's first 'media philosopher'. Ben Rogers relates Ayer's ideas to his remarkable life, strangely troubled beneath its glamorous surface. A friend of Isaiah Berlin, and a follower first of Bertrand Russell, and then of Wittgenstein, Ayer won fame at 24 with his brilliantly iconclastic LANGUAGE, TRUTH AND LOGIC - an essential text for students ever since. Rogers shows Ayer at work and also at play, as a passionate follower of cricket and football, a great dancer, a lover of witty conversation and beautful women. Married four times, Ayer was a leading figure in London 'cafe society', yet he was also a controversial public figure and broadcaster, vehemently left-wing in the 1930s, and later President of the British Humanist Association and the Homosexual Law Reform Society. Colourful, intimate, zestful and often poignant, this is a powerful biography of a provocative, cosmopolitan thinker and an intriguing, multi-faceted character. |
Contents
Illustrations XX | 11 |
Acknowledgements | 11 |
Student 10275 | 11 |
Copyright | |
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A.J. Ayer admitted Archive argued argument Austin Ayer found Ayer wrote Ayer's became believed boys Cambridge Carnap Christ Church Citroën College Cummingses Cyril Connolly Dee Ayer described dinner Dorus E.E. Cummings early empiricism Essays Eton experience fact father feeling Freddie and Renée Freddie's French friends Gilbert Ryle girlfriend Gully Hume Ibid intellectual Isaiah Berlin Jocelyn Rickards Julian June Language later Lawson least lectures lived logical positivism London looked married metaphysics mind moral Neurath never Nick Nick Ayer October offered organised Oxford Paris party Peter Strawson Philip Toynbee philosophy political problem propositions recalled remembered Richard Wollheim Russell Russell's Ryle Schlick seems sense sense-data September spent Stuart Hampshire summer talk Ted Honderich theory things thought took Toynbee Tractatus Truth and Logic undergraduate Valerie Vanessa Vienna Circle wanted Wendy Wittgenstein writing York young