A.J. Ayer

Sir Alfred Jules Ayer, known as Freddie, was an English philosopher, born in 1910 and died in 1989, who became professionally established through his exposition of logical positivism in Language, Truth, and Logic, published in 1936; the book's dismissal of metaphysics and its endorsement of emotivism caused much controversy and debate. After his education at Oxford and a period studying with Moritz Schlick and the Vienna Circle over the winter of 1932 to 1933, Ayer lectured at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1933 to 1940. After serving with the Special Operations Executive and MI6 during the Second World War, he became Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London from 1946 to 1959, then returned to Oxford as Wykeham Professor of Logic at New College until his retirement in the late 1970s; he was knighted in 1970. Ayer was known for his advocacy of humanism and served as the second president of the British Humanist Association from 1965 to 1970.