Brief Summary Language Truth and Logic

Brief Summary:

Language, Truth, & logic

In the book, Language, Truth, & Logic, the author Alfred Ayer presents his argument on the elimination of metaphysicians, the function of philosophy, philosophical analysis, a priori, truth and probability, ethics and theology, the self and the common world, and solutions to philosophical disputes. Throughout the book the author seems to thoroughly define and explain his beliefs on how things should be done and what should be eliminated. However, he presents the information in a harsh and thick manner that is hard to follow.

Introduction to the 1946 Edition

In the introduction, the author mentions that he had published a previous edition to this book ten years previously from which he believed that there were a number of points that in his belief that he needed to expounded upon more thoroughly than he had previously. In one of his points the author addresses is how he, "distinguished between 'strong' verification, where truth could conclusively be established by experience, and 'weak' verification where it was merely probable." He stated that he overlooked the fact that 'strong' verification had no application. As a result, in the second version of the principle he stated that, "a statement is verifiable ,and consequently meaningful, if some observation-statement can be deduced from it in conjunction with certain other premises, without being deducible from those other premises alone." He maintains his 'behavioristic' interpretation of peoples experiences and, "that it has an air of paradox which prevents him from being wholly confident that it is true." Referencing the emotive theory of values, he states he was brief in his explanation. In this part he owns that people can be influenced by the use of emotive language, while he maintains that a value judgement is not a proposition.

Chapter 1: The Elimination of Metaphysics

In this chapter, the author describes metaphysics as, "a sentence which purports to express a genuine proposition," but fails to express both the tautology and empirical hypothesis. He further goes on to equate metaphysicians, the people who use metaphysics, as misplaced poets who unintentionally write nonsensically about things that are not drawn through science or common sense as philosophers do. He states that poets write nonsensical statements to illustrate a greater meaning, whereas, metaphysicians write this way in error and because they are deceived by grammar.

Chapter 2: The Function of Philosophy

The author states, in this chapter, that the general purpose of Philosophy is to bolster science. He relates Philosophy to the natural sciences and believes that in order for it to be a science it must function like one. He states that the science of Philosophy talks about provable truths unlike Metaphysics which he states is invalid.

Chapter 3: The Nature of Philosophical Analysis

In this chapter, the author discusses the idea of philosophical analysis. In doing so he mentions the definitions that Philosophers provide in their work and is sure to point out that their definitions are not meant to create a dictionary as they are not concrete. The definitions of the terminology that they use is meant to