Language, Truth and Logic
Language, Truth and Logic

Author: Alfred Jules Ayer

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2012-04-18

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 0486113094

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"A delightful book … I should like to have written it myself." — Bertrand Russell First published in 1936, this first full-length presentation in English of the Logical Positivism of Carnap, Neurath, and others has gone through many printings to become a classic of thought and communication. It not only surveys one of the most important areas of modern thought; it also shows the confusion that arises from imperfect understanding of the uses of language. A first-rate antidote for fuzzy thought and muddled writing, this remarkable book has helped philosophers, writers, speakers, teachers, students, and general readers alike. Mr. Ayers sets up specific tests by which you can easily evaluate statements of ideas. You will also learn how to distinguish ideas that cannot be verified by experience — those expressing religious, moral, or aesthetic experience, those expounding theological or metaphysical doctrine, and those dealing with a priori truth. The basic thesis of this work is that philosophy should not squander its energies upon the unknowable, but should perform its proper function in criticism and analysis.

From a Logical Point of View
From a Logical Point of View

Author: Willard Van Orman Quine

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1980-05-15

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780674323513

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume of essays has a unity and bears throughout the imprint of Quine's powerful and original mind. It is written with the felicity in the choice of words which makes everything that Quine writes a pleasure to read, and which ranks him among the best contemporary writers on abstract subjects.

Emotion, Truth and Meaning
Emotion, Truth and Meaning

Author: C. Wilks

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-14

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9401598665

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Emotive Theory was theory ahead of its time, and a theory which was, perhaps understandably, misinterpreted, misrepresented, and ridiculed by its critics from the outset. In this work, the author acquaints the reader with what the original emotivists actually claimed, and enriches their claims by psychologically expanding them. He thus develops an enriched emotive theory.

Naming and Necessity
Naming and Necessity

Author: Saul A. Kripke

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1980

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780674598461

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

If there is such a thing as essential reading in metaphysics or in philosophy of language, this is it. Ever since the publication of its original version, Naming and Necessity has had great and increasing influence. It redirected philosophical attention to neglected questions of natural and metaphysical necessity and to the connections between these and theories of reference, in particular of naming, and of identity. From a critique of the dominant tendency to assimilate names to descriptions and more generally to treat their reference as a function of their Fregean sense, surprisingly deep and widespread consequences may be drawn. The largely discredited distinction between accidental and essential properties, both of individual things (including people) and of kinds of things, is revived. So is a consequent view of science as what seeks out the essences of natural kinds. Traditional objections to such views are dealt with by sharpening distinctions between epistemic and metaphysical necessity; in particular by the startling admission of necessary a posteriori truths. From these, in particular from identity statements using rigid designators whether of things or of kinds, further remarkable consequences are drawn for the natures of things, of people, and of kinds; strong objections follow, for example to identity versions of materialism as a theory of the mind. This seminal work, to which today's thriving essentialist metaphysics largely owes its impetus, is here published with a substantial new Preface by the author.

A. J. Ayer: Memorial Essays
A. J. Ayer: Memorial Essays

Author: Alfred Jules Ayer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0521422469

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A. J. Ayer, who died in 1989, was acknowledged as one of Britain's most distinguished philosophers. In this memorial collection of essays leading Western philosophers reflect on Ayer's place in the history of philosophy and explore aspects of his thought and teaching. The volume also includes a posthumous essay by Ayer himself: "A Defence of Empiricism." These essays are undoubtedly a fitting tribute to a major figure, but the collection is not simply retrospective; rather it looks forward to present and future developments in philosophical thought that Ayer's work has stimulated.

An Introduction to Formal Logic
An Introduction to Formal Logic

Author: Peter Smith

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-11-06

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 9780521008044

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Formal logic provides us with a powerful set of techniques for criticizing some arguments and showing others to be valid. These techniques are relevant to all of us with an interest in being skilful and accurate reasoners. In this highly accessible book, Peter Smith presents a guide to the fundamental aims and basic elements of formal logic. He introduces the reader to the languages of propositional and predicate logic, and then develops formal systems for evaluating arguments translated into these languages, concentrating on the easily comprehensible 'tree' method. His discussion is richly illustrated with worked examples and exercises. A distinctive feature is that, alongside the formal work, there is illuminating philosophical commentary. This book will make an ideal text for a first logic course, and will provide a firm basis for further work in formal and philosophical logic.

Fugitive Days
Fugitive Days

Author: Bill Ayers

Publisher: Beacon Press

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9780807032770

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Bill Ayers was born into privilege and is today a highly respected educator. In the late 1960s he was a young pacifist who helped to found one of the most radical political organizations in U.S. history, the Weather Underground. In a new era of antiwar activism and suppression of protest, his story, Fugitive Days, is more poignant and relevant than ever.

Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?
Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?

Author: Ian Hacking

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1975-09-26

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9780521099981

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many people find themselves dissatisfied with recent linguistic philosophy, and yet know that language has always mattered deeply to philosophy and must in some sense continue to do so. Ian Hacking considers here some dozen case studies in the history of philosophy to show the different ways in which language has been important, and the consequences for the development of the subject. There are chapters on, among others, Hobbes, Berkeley, Russell, Ayer, Wittgenstein, Chomsky, Feyerabend and Davidson. Dr Hacking ends by speculating about the directions in which philosophy and the study of language seem likely to go. The book will provide students with a stimulating, broad survey of problems in the theory of meaning and the development of philosophy, particularly in this century. The topics treated in the philosophy of language are among the central, current concerns of philosophers, and the historical framework makes it possible to introduce concretely and intelligibly all the main theoretical issues.