A. J. Ayer

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