A. J. Ayer

A. J. Ayer (1910–1989), or fully Sir Alfred Jules Ayer, was a British philosopher best known as a logical positivst. He made contributions to philosophy of language and epistemology.

In his theory of language, Ayer proposed the verification principle, which states that in order for an utterance to be meaningful, it must be empiricaly verifiable.

A. J. Ayer was known as “Freddie” to his friends, who included a number of famous individuals including Bertrand Russell and George Orwell.

Selected Works

• Language, Truth, and Logic (1936)
• The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (1940)
• The Problem of Knowledge (1956)