Astonishingly, he gave a detailed account o f his experience during that time in the London Sunday Telegraph for 28th August 1988 in an article luridly entitled by a sub-editor ‘What I Saw When I Was Dead’. While in intensive care in University College Hospital his heart stopped beating, and he was clinically dead for four minutes. Then in June 1988 Ayer had what might unkindly be called a metaphysical experience. In particular, the idea that philosophy is a search for first principles was “a superstition from which we are freed by the abandonment of metaphysics.”Īccording to Logical Positivism, metaphysics is nonsense. This doctrine maintained that there are only two ways in which one can make meaningful statements: first by making statements which can be verified by observation second, by making ones which are true in virtue of the rules of language. Written with verve and enthusiasm, it gave a clear statement of Logical Positivism. Sir Alfred Ayer (Freddie to friends) achieved great success with his first book Language, Truth and Logic (1936). Ayer (1910-1989) Alistair MacFarlane considers the populariser of Logical Positivism.
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