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Can someone get a source for the Mike Tyson anecdote? -- LostLeviathan 02:57, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Is there some reason (other than neglect) why Gully Wells' book, The House in France, is not included in Further Reading? It surely qualifies as a resource of interest to those wishing to know more about Ayer. From Amazon's product description: "Set in Provence, London, and New York, this is a daughter’s brilliant and witty memoir of her mother and stepfather—Dee Wells, the glamorous and rebellious American journalist, and A. J. Ayer, the celebrated and worldly Oxford philosopher—and the life they lived at the center of absolutely everything. Gully Wells takes us into the heart of London’s lively, liberated intellectual inner circle of the 1960s. Here are Alan Bennett, Isaiah Berlin, Iris Murdoch, Bertrand Russell, Jonathan Miller, Martin Amis, Christopher Hitchens, Robert Kennedy, and Claus von Bülow, and later in New York a completely different mix: Mayor John Lindsay, Mike Tyson, and lingerie king Fernando Sánchez." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.89.101.239 ( talk) 14:24, 15 December 2015 (UTC)
We have a reference for the Tyson quote that just says "Rogers, 344." Could someone add a proper citation for this, please? SlimVirgin (talk) 19:52, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
I think this phrasing is a little biased:
Ayer's philosophical ideas were largely parasitic on those of the Vienna Circle. However, his clear, vibrant and (arguably) arrogant exposition of them makes Language, Truth and Logic essential reading on the tenets of logical positivism -- the book is a classic, and is widely read in philosophy courses around the world.
I think 'parasitic' is a bad term, 'deeply influenced' lends itself better and is less likely to be seen as pejorative. Wherever I read about Ayer and the Vienna Circle the phrasing is something like that.
'(arguably) arrogant' anyone accused of this is better refered to as 'polemical' in most cases.
'the book is a classic' might be better as 'the book is widely regarded as a classic of 20th century philosophy'
I think that this page needs to be expanded by at least two-fold. There is much more to Ayer's philosophy than what is presented here. There is much more to say about the verification principle, the debunking of it, the controversies, Ayer's other ideas, and the criticisms of Ayer. There should also be more about his life and experiences. Most of what is currently here about his life seems to concern the minor event of Ayer confronting tyson at a party.
Does Ayer belong in the Jewish Philosopher category? Although he may have had jewish ancestry, I seem to recall from Rogers that his mother wasn't jewish (may be mistaken). At any rate, Ayer was certainly never a practising Jew. I'm not sure he belongs in this category. Would like to hear what others think... -- Palthrow 18:08, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
Wikipedia has a strong atheistic bias. Theists tend to have criticisms which "debunk" their claims whereas athiests do not. I'm personally too apathetic to write, nor knowledgeable on the subject to the point where I can write a criticism, but one is needed.-- Rotten 15:30, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
Ayer's mother was Reine Citroën, who was of Dutch Jewish descent. That would have made Ayer halakhically Jewish. According to the Rogers biography, Ayer certainly thought of himself as being Jewish, but he did not have a Jewish religious upbringing, and he was an atheist from the age of 16. As to whether he ought to be listed as a Jewish philosopher, I suppose that would depend on what we mean by "Jewish philosopher." If a Jewish philosopher is simply a philosopher of Jewish descent, then Ayer would certainly qualify. If, on the other hand, we stipulate that a Jewish philosopher must in some way be concerned with engaging in his work in some way with the thoughts and ideas embedded in Judaism, in the ways that people like Maimonides did in their day, or which Hermann Cohen did in his or even Spinoza, then Ayer would not qualify as having been a Jewish philosopher. JimFarm 12:57, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
Can anybody help me out with the pronunciation of Ayer's name? Is it /ah-yer/ or /ay-yer/?
What did this involve? Millbanks 21:02, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
I think the near death experience should be removed from the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.232.237.160 ( talk) 14:46, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
What was the cause? P Cezanne ( talk) 20:24, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
This article says in one place that Ayer was married four times, and in another place, two. Which is correct? Markjoseph125 ( talk) 18:30, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
This article names a new MI6 history an names Ayer as an agent. Nothing more in this article, but might be interesting to look into the book. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/21/mi6-first-authorised-history -- Tcheh ( talk) 10:11, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
Ayer wrote about his work during the second world war with S.O.E (which was formed out of part of MI6) in his autobiography, and although he never admitted there to working directly with SIS around the same time or just after, this seems to have been common knowledge. The earliest reference I can find is in a 1994 biography of Goronwy Rees, but Ben Roger's biography of Ayer back in 2000 makes it explicit. -- Dannyno ( talk) 20:28, 6 October 2013 (UTC)
"I was told in advance that he was very ill, and that my time with him would be limited to 10 minutes. When I walked into the room, he was wearing an oxygen mask. There were two women in the room. I can’t remember how we got beyond those evident barriers — the social and the physical — but I remained with him for four hours. We talked about many things, but mainly the Second World War. Apparently, many Oxford philosophers had been involved in the war effort, in intelligence. I recall in particular a story Ayer told me about having saved De Gaulle’s life from a faction of the French resistance."
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/philosophers-through-the-lens/ -- Gwern (contribs) 15:12 1 November 2010 (GMT)
The result of the move request was: moved to A. J. Ayer. Mkativerata ( talk) 20:42, 16 December 2010 (UTC)
Alfred Jules Ayer →
A. J. Ayer — Isn't this by far the most common formatting of his name?
George Richard Leeming (
talk) 19:05, 5 December 2010 (UTC)
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The introduction concludes,
Among British philosophers of the 20th century, he has been ranked by Stanford as second only to Bertrand Russell.
The Stanford page says:
Nevertheless, amongst British philosophers of the 20th Century he has been ranked as second only to Russell (by John Foster, in A.J. Ayer); Peter Strawson, at his memorial service, stated that his contribution to the theory of knowledge and general metaphysics was “in no way inferior to Russell's”. (See Ben Roger's A.J. Ayer p. 358).
The Stanford Encyclopedia does not rank Ayer as "second only to Russell", John Foster does. Strawson ranks him with Russell in two particular branches. As a result I have removed "the second only to Russell" sentence from the article. I hope this isn't presumptuous.
Coalpatch ( talk) 20:35, 25 April 2013 (UTC)
How did he latterly describe himself? Ben-Natan ( talk) 23:05, 30 July 2013 (UTC)
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