A. J. Ayer: A Life - Hardcover

Rogers, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802116736 ISBN 13: 9780802116734

Publisher: Grove Pr, 2000

Synopsis

An authorized biography of the twentieth-century philosopher studies the enigma surrounding the man whose book "Language, Truth, and Logic" rocked the world of philosophy.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

A.J. Ayer (1910-1989) was a man of startling complexity: an exceptionally rigorous and penetrating philosopher, he was also an ardent sports fan, dancer, and seducer. He traveled in the most glamorous social circles, yet his friends found him oddly remote. A brilliant, strangely vulnerable man, Ayer comes vividly to life in this acclaimed biography.

An analytic philosopher in the tradition of Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore, Ayer was a leading exponent of Logical Positivism. Attacking the view that philosophy had anything to teach us about the nature of the universe or how to live, he sought to liberate life from the shackles of traditional metaphysics. This approach challenged many fundamental beliefs of his fellow philosophers, and Ayer's dogged and eloquent articulation of his views earned him many enemies even as he succeeded in changing the course of British philosophy. Ben Rogers provides a clear and accessible account of Ayer's philosophical writings and assesses their signficance to twentieth-century philosophy.

Rogers also offers fascinating insights into the links between Ayer's philosophy and his life. He guides us through the young philosopher's troubled years at Eton, using Ayer's experience there to create an indelible portrait of England's upper classes during the twilight years of Victorian privilege. He takes us to Oxford, where Ayer astounded his tutors with his acumen and iconoclastic zeal, and where he befriended Isaiah Berlin, Ludwig Wittgenstein, e.e. cummings, 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. Its success catapulted him into the public eye, where he reveled for decades as an intellectual, political campaigner, and socialite. He was married four times (but to three women) and had countless affairs.

Yet despite his social charms and appetite for life, Ayer, half French-Swiss and half Dutch-Jewish, remained something of an outsider, and many who knew him well considered him melancholy and oddly shallow. Rogers explores his complicated and often contradictory personality with a sympathetic eye. Succeeding as both a personal portrait and a rigorous philosophical assessment, A.J. Ayer is a powerful biography of a provocative thinker and unforgettable man.

"A delightful discourse on an extraordinarly full life: Rogers succeeds in capturing the spirit of a philosophical maverick who many loved to hate."--Kirkus Reviews

"Ben Rogers has pulled off a feat of biography that deserves to take its place alongside the two other great biographies of philosophers of recent times: Michael Ignatieff's Isaiah Berlin and Roy Monk's Wittgenstein."--Alain de Botton, Mail on Sunday

"A.J. Ayer lived a fascinating life and in Rogers he has found an ideal biographer.... [An] excellent book, masterly in its exposition of the philosophy as much as in its analysis of the life."--Frank McLynn, New Statesman

"An incisive, highly intelligent and entertaining biography.... One cannot help feeling fond of this strange, brilliant, playful man."--John Banville, Irish Times

"A marvelous story...A.J. Ayer [had a] truly fascinating life, which Ben Rogers in this biography fills in with all the color and detail it deserves. I can't recommend the book too highly."--Peregrine Worsthorne, Independent on Sunday

"Ben Rogers has written a solid and well-turned biography of the philosopher, covering the full range of his interests and his foibles. I found it gripping reading."--Colin McGinn, The Times Literary Supplement

"An expert analysis of Ayer's developments and achievements is combined with a detailed description of his personal and social life.... For anyone interested in the cultural history of our time, Ben Rogers's book is of absorbing interest."--Raymond Carr, The Spectator

Ben Rogers wrote his doctoral thesis at Oxford on seventeenth-century moral and political thought. He has produced programs on philosophy for BBC Radio and writes regularly on politics and philosophy for several British newspapers. He is the autho

Reviews

"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.

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
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Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802116736
• ISBN 13: 9780802116734
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416