Ayer-Arg Philosophers

First Published in 1999. The purpose of this series is to provide a contemporary assessment and history of the entire course of philosophical thought. Each book constitutes a detailed, critical introduction to the work of a philosopher of major influence and significance. Alfred Jules Ayer was born on 29 October 1910 and still flourishes. Ayer’s philosophical writings to date include fourteen books (not to mention those he has edited) and a host of essays, articles, and reviews.

Part I Meaning and Verification 1 The criterion of significance 2 The a priori and the analytic 3 The principle of verification 4 Is there a rationale for the verification principle? 5 Empirical atomism 6 Ayer’s reductionism 7 The relativity-factor 8 Ayer’s critique of ethics Part II Knowledge and Scepticism 1 Introduction 2 Ayer’s definition of knowledge 3 The truth-reliability thesis 4 Specifying the mode of arrival 5 The reason-furnishing thesis 6 The furnishing of reasons 7 The nature of scepticism 8 The four possible solutions 9 Perception 10 The nature of perceptual experience 11 Sense-experience and the physical world 12 Scepticism reconsidered Part III Man and Nature 1 The problem of induction 2 Hume’s argument 3 A priori probability 4 Ayer’s own position 5 The nomological-explanatory solution 6 Ayer’s account of causation 7 The reducibility thesis 8 The unity of the mind 9 Free will

John Foster