A. J. Ayer: A Life [Hardcover]

Ben Rogers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2000

A. J. Ayer (1910 - 1989) was a man of startling complexity; an exceptionally rigorous and penetrating philosopher, he was also a dedicated hedonist, dancer, and seducer. He traveled in the most glamorous social circles, yet his friends found him oddly remote. This brilliant, strangely vulnerable man comes vividly to life in this acclaimed biography. Ben Rogers provides an unusually clear account of Ayer's philosophical writings and assesses their significance to twentieth-century philosophy. He also offers fascinating insights into the links between Ayer's philosophy and his life. Rogers guides us through his troubled years at Eton, using Ayer's experience there to create an indelible portrait of England's upper classes in the first half of the century. He takes us to Oxford, where Ayer astounded his tutors with his acumen and iconoclastic zeal, and where he met Isaiah Berlin, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and other great thinkers and writers of the era. Ayer was only twenty-four when he wrote his most influential book, Language, Truth and Logic, and set out to put an end to philosophy itself. The success of this book catapulted Ayer into the public eye, where he reveled for decades as a media guest, political activist, and socialite. Rogers re-creates both his public and his personal lives with a sympathetic but balanced eye. Colorful, intimate, and often poignant, this is a powerful biography of a provocative thinker and unforgettable man. "A.J. Ayer lived a fascinating life and in Rogers he has found an ideal biographer." -- Frank McLynn, New Statesman

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Freddie" Ayer (1910-1989) "was like an eighteenth-century rationalist voluptuary," one of his former students once recalled. Oxford historian of philosophy Rogers (Pascal: In Praise of Vanity) captures both aspects of the notable philosopher who believed in a life well livedDand asked that the song "Oh, What a Beautiful Doll" be played at his funeralDbut the frenetic voluptuary is much more vivid (Rogers identifies 30 of Ayer's mistresses, almost all by name, including gossip columnist Sheilah Graham) than the exponent of reason. Ayer came from wealthy families on both sides, went to the best schools and knew the beautiful and best-connected people. Precociously clever and narcissistically bent, he was "remote," Rogers concedes, "from some of the more ordinary human emotions." Yet his Language, Truth and Logic, published when he was only 25, achieved cult status among English intellectuals who admired his militant empiricism and rejection of what he saw as fashionable cant. His books were often as audacious as his womanizing, and identified nonsense where others perceived truth (Ayer maintained that philosophy "cannot discover anything about the world; only empirical science can do that"). He gained a gadfly reputation for his brilliance as a precise and accessible talker and writer. Rogers skillfully evokes Ayer's personality and life but finds it much more difficult to explain him as a philosopher with a lasting message. The publisher quotes Alain de Botton's praise for this biography in England's Sunday Mail and it may garner fine reviews here as well, but despite the raciness of Ayer's life, the primary audience for this volume will be found only among serious students of 20th-century philosophy. Illus. not seen by PW. Agent, Kris Dahl, ICM. (Oct. 20)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Alfred Jules Ayer's life is at least as interesting as his philosophy. In challenging metaphysics' claim to essential truths about the universe and human morality, Ayer defined philosophy as a second-order discipline devoted to understanding the meaning of critical concepts, such as causation and the mind. In classic works, such as Language, Truth and Logic, and studies of such philosophers as Wittgenstein and Russell, Ayer demonstrated the range and role of his logical positivist approach. But Ayer separated philosophy from life partly because of his own hedonistic appreciation for life: he had affairs with several women at a time; socialized with intellectuals, show-business folk, and society types, on both sides of the Atlantic; and was a frequent television guest and a fanatical football fan. Drawing on interviews as well as other sources, Rogers fills in some of the interesting gaps left by Ayer's two volumes of autobiography. \plain\f0\fs17 Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Grove Pr (October 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802116736
• ISBN-13: 978-0802116734
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,326,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fuller view, August 1, 2001

By 

"arlodriver" (Dearborn, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A. J. Ayer: A Life (Hardcover)

Excellent! A very enjoyable read about a man I've heard disparaged more often than most in 20th century philosophy. While it's true Ayer's work seems to be fairly derivative, and still extremely influential, he was restating a vein of British philosophy that I for one feel pretty favorable about. On reading his life story, I find that Ayer did more than I knew to bring the anti-metaphysical views of his hero Hume to the public, the academy, and a large and interesting slice of cultural limelights. Sure, his flaws were many and glaring, and you'll find a clear cataloging of his vices in these reviews as well as the book itself. What was surprising to me was to read of his many less reported virtues, including an aversion to discipleship, an agile interest in philosophical developments throughout the world, courage in the face of wooly-headed public theism, and a valiant record of worthwhile public service (a rarity in the history of PHI giants). While Wittgenstein romantically isolated himself wringing his hands in the service of a semi-secular priesthood, Ayer made real gains in reforming British adoption, schooling, and discrimination against homosexuals.

And this points to what makes this book far more interesting to read than the lives of most British philosophers - He actually lived a life worth reading about! Hardly a famous cultural figure lived through post-war Britain without having dinner with Ayer. He even lectured the Kennedy family! For Ayer, philosophy and life were separate affairs for the most part (and of affairs you'll read plenty). He firmly believed that when one began to speak beyond the realms of empirical evidence, one risked speaking nothing but nonsense, and to his credit he seemed to mostly avoid the temptation. In my humble opinion, that is good for philosophy, bad for your fan club.

I for one gained from reading this book. While I don't see Ayer as a member of heroic pantheon to be emulated, I do have a new respect for this most "sensible" public intellectual.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Oxbridge circus, February 5, 2001

By 

Dennis Mangan (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A. J. Ayer: A Life (Hardcover)

A.J. Ayer,whose book "Language,Truth,and Logic" introduced logical positivism to the English-speaking world, and which has become and remains a classic of philosophy, finally gets the biography he has long deserved. Ben Rogers,a philosophically-trained journalist, does a fine job of not only giving the details of Ayer's life,but of explicating his philosophy,as well as criticisms of it. The Oxbridge and London milieu in which Ayer moved is wittily and affectionately portrayed, so that we get to meet characters on the order of Wittgenstein,Ryle,Russell,and other dons and eccentrics. Ayer,after the success of Language,Truth and Logic,was once asked what came next, and he replied "Nothing comes next. Philosophy is over." An anecdote like this gives one both the flavor of the enfant terrible that was the young A.J. Ayer,as well as that of this interesting book. For an academic philosopher,Ayer had a surprisingly interesting life,and for those who want to discover its details this biography is highly recommended, to be placed along side Monk's Wittgenstein.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of a Logical Positivist, March 9, 2005

By 

Ralph Blumenau (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A.J. Ayer: A Life (Paperback)

A.J.Ayer stood in the tradition of David Hume, Bertrand Russell and the early Wittgenstein. For all of these, metaphysical statements, because they could never be verified by sense observation, were, in a philosophical sense "meaningless". Meaningful statements had to be precisely phrased and then verified by sense observation.

When Ayer was still a classical scholar at Eton, his interest in philosophy was aroused by Bertrand Russell; and his tutor at Christ Church, Gilbert Ryle, introduced him to Wittgenstein's work. Ryle was the only Oxford academic to have taken an interest in Wittgenstein; nor for that matter did Russell figure in the Oxford philosophy syllabus. Oxonian philosophers almost all came to the subject through the classics, whereas the Cambridge men had a mathematical or scientific background, which was so much more congenial to a branch of philosophy which aimed to pursue the subject with scientific rigour. Ayer's background was classical, too; but he responded enthusiastically to Wittgenstein (whom he still thought to be the Wittgenstein of the Tractatus: when the Philosophical Investigations were published, Ayer, like Russell, would think that Wittgenstein had gone soft.) He wanted to use the interval between his Finals and taking up a lectureship at Christ Church, to study under Wittgenstein. But Ryle thought the Wittgenstein cult was bad for both of them, and persuaded him instead to go to Vienna and study under Moritz Schlick, one of the leaders of the Vienna Circle. The Circle's philosophy, itself originally inspired by the Wittgenstein of the Tractatus, was becoming known under the name of Logical Positivism.

It could be said that Ayer was already a Logical Positivist before he went to Vienna; but certainly by the time he returned to Oxford, there was noone in England better informed about Logical Positivism than he. Ayer was the first to lecture in Oxford on Russell, Wittgenstein and Rudolf Carnap (a member of the Vienna Circle).

Isaiah Berlin persuaded Ayer to write a book on his theories, and the result was Language, Truth and Logic, published in 1936, when Ayer was only 26. The book itself would become a standard text of 20th century British philosophy. Ben Rogers writes: "The position he defended had become canonical, which was strange considering that it was hard to find anyone who agreed with it. Logical Positivism, as represented by Language, Truth and Logic was probably the school that under-graduate philosophers knew best, but it was a school that, from the beginning, most were taught to refute." But the refutations, such as they were, eventually came not from metaphysicians who had attacked the book so much from the beginning, but from philosophers who, like Ayer himself, were concerned with the meaning of propositions; and they included Ayer himself, who over the remainder of his life fine-tuned or modified several theories he had put forward as an impetuous and (Rogers maintains) as an angry young man - angry with the establishment at Oxford which, he felt, had at that time denied him the prizes and promotions that were his due, for reasons that had to do both with philosophical vested interests and with antisemitism.

One shortcoming of Rogers' book is that the arguments of scarcely any of Ayer's critics, with the exception of his main rival, J.L.Austin, are given a proper airing; and the criticisms that are stated of Language, Truth and Logic in the biography are largely those of Ayer himself in later life as he modified his original thesis.

The part of Language, Truth and Logic that drew the severest criticism from outside was the position known as "emotivism", which declared that moral judgments (as well as aesthetic ones) are no more than the expression of a speaker's approval or disapproval. Moral statements have to do with values, and values are not a proper subject of philosophy as such. This position made some opponents agree with a Westminster housemaster who described Ayer as "the most wicked man in Oxford". (Doubtlessly Ayer's reputation as a libertine was also seen as consequence of what he had written about morals.)

And yet Ayer, like Bertrand Russell, did have strong moral feelings and felt that he had to live up to them. Certainly these did not include conventional moral feelings about sexual behaviour; but he actively supported a number of progressive social and political causes. He even agreed in his retirement to become founder President of the Society for Applied Philosophy -an odd position for someone who had argued that philosophy had no role in advising people how to live. He now described that earlier idea as "rather insular": although philosophy cannot lay down moral codes, it can at least help people to clarify their moral choices. And, as a human being, we ought to make choices - as long as we don't think that they are grounded in philosophy as such. In this respect he spoke of commitment in much the same way as did the existentialists, for whose general philosophy, with its strong element of metaphysics, he of course had no sympathy. Ayer knew well that there were things outside of philosophy which were wonderful but about which philosophy as such has nothing to say.

The philosophical parts of Rogers' book are not always easy: he takes quite a lot of philosophical knowledge for granted. But even readers who do not have such knowledge will be fascinated by the image he gives us of this zestful man and of the society in which he moved. With all the many reservations one can make of Ayer's character (and about which even his wives were fully aware and articulate), he was hugely admired and loved as a person by a great many people: women, colleagues, students, and others. The author, who met him only once and for the most fleeting of moments, admits to liking and respecting him. One can deduce this also from the fact that the people who detested him (and there were some) make only a marginal appearance in the book.