Philosophy in the Twentieth Century V655

299 Pages·1983·15.055 MB·English

by  A.J. Ayer

Philosophy
in th e
Twentieth
“Not only an illuminating chronicle
of some of the key debates in modem
philosophy. It is itself a substantial
contribution to those debates.”
-Alasdair MacIntyre
New York Times Book Review
A.J. Ayer
Philosophy in the Twentieth Century

PHILOSOPHY
in the
TWENTIETH
CENTURY
-----------------------------------------
A .J Ayer
VINTAGE BOOKS
A Division of Random House
New York
First Mntage Books Edition, January 1984
Copyright © 1982 by A. J. Ayer
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by
Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by
Random House of Canada Limited, Tbronto. Originally published
in the United Sutes by Random House, Inc. and in
Great Britain by Wcidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd. in 1982.
Library of Congress CaUloging in Publication DaU
Ayer, A. J. (Allied Jules), 1910-
Philosophy in the twentieth century.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Philosophy, Modem—20th century.
I. Title.
rt04.A8i81984 I90'.9'04 83-47822
b»n 0-394-71655-8
Manufactured in the United Sutes of America
To Vanessa

Contents
Preface ix
I Philosophical Inheritance i
II The Revolt From Hegel 19
Bertrand Russell 20
His Approach to Philosophy 22
The Theory of Descriptions and
the Theory of Types 25
His Theories of Knowledge and of
What There Is 31
G. E. Moore 4°
Principia Ethica 41
Moore and Prichard 48
The Refutation of Idealism 55
The Defence of Common Sense 59
EH Pragmatism 69
William James 69
The Character of James's Pragmatism 70
Radical Empiricism 75
James's Theory of Truth 79
C. 1. Lewis 83
His Theories of Knowledge and Meaning 84
His Moral Philosophy 102 IV
IV Wittgenstein, Popper and the Vienna Circle 108
The Tractatus and its Sequels 108
Moritz Schlick, Otto Neurath and
Rudolf Carnap 121
Karl Popper on Induction 131
CONTENTS
The Concentration on Syntax 134
Tarski’s Theory of Truth 136
The Fate of the Circle 138
V Wittgenstein, Carnap and Ryle 142
The later Wittgenstein 142
Carnap and Semantics 137
Gilbert Ryle and the Concept of Mind 164
VI Physfealism 170
Broad on Mind and Matter 3 170
Strawson’s Concept of a Person 178
Armstrong’s Materialism 180
Davidson’s Argument 187
Summary 189
VII The Philosophy of R. G. Coliingwood 191
The Influence of Croce 192
The Theory of Absolute Presuppositions 197
Causality and the Idea of Nature 20s
The Idea of History 209
VIII Phenomenology and Existentialism 214
The Foundation in Brentano and Husserl 214
Maurice Merleau-Ponty 216
His Account of Perception 216
On the World as Perceived 223
The Early Work of Heidegger and Sartre 226
IX Later Developments 234
Linguistic Philosophy . 234
J. L. Austin 234
Noam Chomsky 239
W. V. Quine 242
Nelson Goodman 253
Michael Dummett 262
Essentialism 267
Index 271
Preface
3 0 —
This contribution to the history of philosophy was originally con­
ceived as a sequel to Bertrand Russell's A History of Western
Philosophy. It fulfils this intention to the extent that it also confines
itself to the West, that, apart from a revaluation of William James and
a considerably expanded treatment of what Russell called Logical
Analysis, including a chapter devoted to Russell himself, it takes up
the story at the point where he left off, and that rather than mention a
whole host of philosophers who have made some contribution to the
subject, and devote a few lines to each, it deals with the work of a
relatively small number of outstanding philosophers at some depth.
There is, however, one area in which I have deliberately failed to
follow Russell’s example. It seemed to me that his excursions into
social and political history did not throw much light upon the views of
the philosophers with which he sought to associate them and I did not
believe that I could improve on his performance. I have, therefore,
been content to give a few biographical details about the philosophers
on whom I concentrate and in certain cases to refer to the ways in
which they influenced one another.
It will be seen that the greater part of the book is devoted to the
representatives of two main schools for which I have a personal
predilection, the American pragmatists, ranging from William James
and C. I. Lewis in the earlier part of this century to my near
contemporaries Nelson Goodman and W. V. Quine, and what is
loosely called the analytic movement, covering philosophers as
diverse as Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore, Ludwig Wittgenstein,
Rudolf Carnap and other members of the Vienna Circle, C. D.
Broad, Gilbert Ryle, J. L. Austin, the Americans Donald Davidson
and Hilary Putnam, the Australian D. M. Armstrong, and, among
my more recent colleagues at Oxford, Peter Strawson and Michael
Dummett. I am not sure that Broad would have been pleased to find
IX