Ayer on Logical Positivism: Section 1

[djs259]

smoking is bad for you

[jjbrewer1]

One minute I'm thinking what an old codger Ayer is with his pants up round his nipples, the next he's blowing smoke in my face..

[steliosc93]

Ayer speaks really fast.

[JesusJonahWoman]

@steliosc93 He speaks fast cause he doesn't have mental images - i.e can't picture anything in his mind. So he doesn't get bogged down in it when he speaks. True story.

[nonrealist]

Anyone else feel under pressure to smoke? ;-) Ayer actually makes it look cool. Naughty I know..

[MahanaimCh]

Could you tell me who recorded this interview (i.e. BBC) and what year it was recorded. Need to cite for a paper. Thank you

[AndysEdits]

i've been writing about Ayer in A-level essays for 2 years now - nice to finally put a face to a name!

[ghandi8749]

I'm reading Language, Truth, and Logic at the moment, and I must say Ayer is an amazing writer.

[jacklamborghini]

wow, those are the highest trousers i have ever seen!!

[kybrande]

@jacklamborghini im glad someone else noticed that. he's a smart guy, but wow



[rederic2004]

Ayer's a much more interesting talker than I imagined he would be.

[Namely82]

whenever I'm on a long, like 7 hour drive and i start to get drowsy...i don't stop for coffee, I just think about logical positivism and it wakes me right up.

[Ewochable]

@Namely82 How? By giving you anxiety? It gives me anxiety too.

[spincrazy88]

@Namely82 HAHAHA!

[shrinkrap123]

Attention Mr. Bryan Magee, I love your books. Please be advised that Wikipedia is entirely misrepresenting, by omission, the message of Wittgenstein's Tractatus (that what can't be stated-only shown or experienced is the most important). All who know the truth please check it out. I must blame Cambridge for this, as they have posted their Website as THE Wittgenstein Website, which I gather, means that they endorse the erroneous content. Call or write them! It must not be allowed to continue!!!

[LooksAeterna]

2:33 - 2:48 Political intentions may well have been behind this positivist bunk - to this day. It is intent on uprooting common sense to the advantage of a power elite managing for us what is "meaningful" and whatever else would then have to be of "unsound mind." By the standards of this positivist philosophical fascism, to say "I love you" or "I think I met you yesterday" is all meaningless sounds.

Thank God for late Wittgenstein and Gödel to have brought down this calamity for good !

[Stikkman]

Ayer's talking about Logical Positivism, and we're all shitting on about smoking...

[LRowe55]

OH GOD HIS TROUSERS

[ReduxRex]

smoke'em if you got'em.

[milnusthegnome]

Philosophy is boring and so 2010

[adriatik7070]

those were time of enlightenment and meaning

[1980Jonno]

AJ Ayer gives me the fucking horn

[ludocrat]

Studying "Language, Truth and Logic" at the age of 19 in the first year of my degree many years ago, I had in my mind a bizarre image of the author that resembled some sort of titanic mutant combination of Plato and Karl Marx. Had I known at the time that Ayer was 25 when he published it, I'm sure I'd have been far less intimidated by its content and far more inclined, in the spirit of gratitude, to buy the old man a pint.

[artistsandbox]

this interviewer is great. . something you don't usually read on youtube comments

[scotty123123]

Ayer was famous for being an incredible womaniser

[simplycharly]

Outstanding series! You certainly won't find this kind of tv programming ever in the US which is a shameful pity.

[whimppy]

i totally agree...i find myself watching foreign news channels also

Americans are so concerned with bible ethics and partisan political parties...no room for deeper thought with the masses...

[seestickglue232]

@whimppy The saddest part is the majority of America is more dependent on pundits to decide how the debate progresses for them from two points of view only rather than from their own brains. It seems totally inescapable without a third party who doesn't participate in entertainment politics, choosing instead to specifically denounce it and is not bound by financial obligation to specific groups of people, nor bound by partisan politics.

[artistsandbox]

@seestickglue232 well said

[ilikezappa]

didn`t A J Ayer play for Leeds Utd in the 70`s ? I remember some great games with him , Billy Bremner and Eddie Gray

[baltimark]

( 7:41 )

Philosophy is the handmaiden of science, which is the handmaiden of politics.

How noble. ...

[LooksAeterna]

@baltimark You got it there. Except this isn't philosophy, it is what "philosophy" and "science" has become und the influence of paid coroprately controlled academism.

[takethisusernamebitc]

this guy is a riot. remember when smoking wasnt a crime yet? i dont, im only 22

[86darkhorse]

@takethisusernamebitc I know what you mean ;)

[feste121]

yeh man, ayer had balls! not many men could have done that. and i wish i was looking into analytic philosophy, i have to wait a whole other semester XP

[feste121]

on reflection, i agree, shallow was ill chosen, as a thinker he excelled, as a gentleman he was a model, but that didnt mean he was a flawless man.

[palindrome06]

Is the intro music from mozart?

[vanderbilt887]

No. Don't know what it is, but it isn't Mozart.

[rh001YT]

Lgoical Positivism is dead because it was never very useful except in emprical science and the assertion that it could/should be extended beyond empirical science was nothing but a value judgement by the Positivists! Such an extenstion was a matter of taste - it fit with their likes and dislikes, especially with regard the hedonistic calculus. People don't really care about language rules as much as they care about what is being said, such as, "free chocolate ice-cream today".

[jamesellis33]

I do not know that language rules are not applicable. Not all statements tend to be that explict. Meaning depends on correct inference. The problem is the fact that things must be interpreted, whats being said must be stated in a correct form to ensure perspicuity. As for not caring about language rules or logic is just mental laziness. Logic is necessity to ensure the individual draws correct inferences, otherwise whats being said might not be understood.

[DawahFilms]

Positivism = Intellectually dead

Unfortunately, it's still popular. Especially among many contemporary Atheists today.

[kiasmus]

Today logical positivism is as dead as a doornail. It is an extermely narrow and simplistic view of the human language, the human knowledge and their relation to the world.

[TlogicoP]

Yeah, Schlick and Carnap must have missed that... what a bunch of idiots, huh?

[crucifr1ed]

what a great age! when smoking wasn't evil, when ignorance wasn't fashionable...

[katiegreenaway]

100% agreement

[jezmuff]

@crucifr1ed Your statement either contradicts itself by implication or confuses itself by form, re-read.

[seestickglue232]

@crucifr1ed Wait, I'm evil?

[grimslider75]

@crucifr1ed

who cares if smoking is evil, it's illogical to harm and intentionally addict yourself to any substance

otherwise, good point

[GeorgesBarras]

@grimslider75 It's fun though, so fuck logic.

[grimslider75]

@GeorgesBarras

joy is subjective, the harmful effects of addiction to ones physical health aren't

[bfoaliali]

@crucifr1ed Smoking is a terrible thing man. There is no debate on it anymore.

[jerryhello100]

@bfoaliali Smoking kills, automobiles kill, the sun kills, pesticides kill, sports can kill, time kills, love kills -- if one is to eschew anything that might kill, one never lives.

[jameshanley40]

@crucifr1ed

well even if ignorance wasn't popular, they were ignorant, they smoked.

[S2Cents]

@crucifr1ed

What great age are you referring to?

[big92mac]

@crucifr1ed I agree with you, but these people were never fashionable ! haha

[steviebkhall]

It wont change the "NOW"; will it!

[gopidravid]

excitingly enthralling.

[jabberwock01]

We can see with historical hindsight that the logical approach against metaphysics was a reaction to the evil, illogical metaphysical systems of Nazism and Stalinism. I knew A.J.Ayer 'the cleverest man in Oxford' and yes, he was an exceptionally nice as well as gifted man.

[phoenix96]

wicked tie

[Shanshou4]

If this man is alive today he would destory and fuck to shred all the Derrida folloers Rorty and Nezitz what ever that german philospher to shit

[ashburnhouse]

Could you rewrite this please? I think I know what you mean?

[GeorgesBarras]

I want Bryan Magee's tie.

[philonaut]

love the fashion in which ayer is smoking

[GeorgesBarras]

He has exceptional style, no-body seems to age like that anymore.

[Merooba]

Brand Blanshard put paid to logical positivism simply by asking if the verification principle was itself verifiable -- which it isn't.

[Jprotevi]

That's a classic objection to logical positivism, but Ayer actually anticipates it. Remember, he claims in Language, Truth and Logic that only empirically verifiable AND analytic truths are meaningful. In the forward to the book he says that the verification principle is an analytic truth. So, the principle needn't be empirically verifiable. Now of course it's an entirely different matter whether you find his solution satisfying. I for one am suspicious of it.

[Merooba]

Thanks; I had forgotten that if I ever knew it, though I just thumbed through my well-underlined copy of LT&L and didn't find it. Unlike the verification principle itself, the fact that Ayer made such a statement is easily verifiable. With no desire to cavil (as Prof. Blanshard would say), do you happen to recall where it occurs?

I share your misgivings about Ayer's amendment, which seems a bit ad hoc. Of course Wittgenstein would love it, amounting as it does to a stipulation about language.

[Jprotevi]

And what deep philosophical contribution do you have to give us, willgoodbins?

[SonoPortoricano]

Frederick Copleston completely deconstructed Ayer's philosophical position -the verifiability criterion or principle- in a 1949 debate sponsored by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Anyhow, logical positivism is rather poor, reason why from a philosophical perspective it proved to be extremely unsatisfactory.

[PeteUtonic]

Absolute rubbish. Russell destroyed Copleston as everyone knows.

[SonoPortoricano]

Rubbish. You must have read o heard another discussion. No matter how well Ayer contested Copleston's base for the sense, reality, truth and meaning of metaphysical propositions, the now discredited verifiability criterion of Ayer was pretty much refuted exceptionally by Copleston.

[Pro2726]

to put it so simply detracts from the discussion, i think neither succeed in the destruction of either, both expressed well and neither was particularly victorious......

[Formica45]

Ayer is the man!!!

[Nanobourn]

They should make programs like this again. Bring some intelligence back to television.

[Katrynertreflen]

@Nanobourn I love you.

[LooksAeterna]

@Nanobourn As if the owners of television would allow that after having spent decades of systematically removing intelligence form television and dumbing people down.

See the comment by "crucifr1ed". There is a reason why they have made ignorance fashionable.

[adamXcore]

@Nanobourn Agreed. Sadly, a lot of great minds (like Ayer) are now gone, though.

[MahanaimCh]

@Nanobourn The reason were so dumb today is because we've been listening and believing this destructive trash for too long.

[willgoodbins]

He has something to say but he is incredibly shallow.

[ThingsAreSweet]

The fuck is wrong with you? This is AJ Ayer. He was, like, the logical positivist in the 40s and 50s.

[shilohwillcome]

Yeah, a work in futility.

[Myndir]

Any philosophy that has been widely disgarded has not been a work in futility. The mark of a good philosophy is that it has been shown to be wrong; bad philosophy- indeed, all too much philosophy- is immune to such analysis.

If everyone had the same basic approach to expressing, defending and criticising their philosophy as the logical positivits did, many more views would have been similarly disgarded. It's impossible to imagine subject/object dualism, for instance, surviving such a process.

[shilohwillcome]

Well I shouldn't pretend to know much about Ayer's but logical positivism just seems like a waste of good minds. But no, I don't think a good philosophy is shown to be wrong but as in any bad philosophy there emerges something to learn from it.

[CivisVulgaris]

You can't really believe that analysing statements to determine if their truth-claims are verifiable or if they are simply meaningless references to unobservable metaphysical things is a waste of good minds. LP was an integral part of the development of modern approaches to science and knowledge.

And Myndir's reference to good philosophy being philosophy that can possibly be shown to be wrong is a reference to a particular criticism of 'meaningless' statements. See K Popper.

[shilohwillcome]

"You can't really believe that analysing statements to determine..." did I say you could or couldn't, what are you addressing here?

I'm not really understanding you point on Popper, as Popper is talking about meaningless statements he was talking about his science, and I don't think this is a nice view of science, better is Newton's, I think.

[feste121]

no, hes right, ayer was a bit of a shallow fellow in his personal life, but that really has no effect in his philosophy

[shilohwillcome]

he seems like a nice man.

[cvb777]

I love these old interviews where people smoke and make themselves comfortable. Those were the days...

[dogx15]

Ayer introduced logical positivism to the english speaking world.

[ContraWagner]

Magee's introduction was amazing and Ayer is marvelous as always.

[ksd404]

i cant understand anything just because of his accent.

[cvb777]

He hasn't got an accent! This is the Queen's English aka English as such!

[mohamedbongfish]

everybody got a accent

[siddhaam]

this is great stuff.

Thank you so much.

Sad to say this level of stuff seems thin on the ground these days.

[doethcaru]

What an astonishingly clear, vigorous and erudite speaker. This guy fizzes! I've been trying to get my hands on these videos for years. Great stuff! Don't suppose you have debate between Ayer, Don Cupitt and Sperber, chaired by Magee as part of the thinking aloud series?  My copy was destroyed.

[rootberg]

Lovely to see all these videos. One of my professors was a pupil of Ayers.

[rsb04d]

Fantastic video. Ayer was a remarkably engaging speaker.

[fmajor3]

I'm sure contrawagner would be thrilled by this one.

[ContraWagner]

haha! Yes I am. I am pissing my pants.

[earlyphilosophy]

Ayer's "Language, Truth, and Logic" is a great work of clearly spoken analytic philosophy. Seeing these videos makes me want to read something by Magee, perhaps "The world as I see it."