Alfred Jules Ayer: Fact

Alfred Jules Ayer was English philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on fact.
Alfred Jules Ayer: 36   quotes 0   likes

“The criterion which we use to test the genuineness of apparent statements of fact is the criterion of verifiability.”

Alfred Jules Ayer book Language, Truth, and Logic

Source: Language, Truth, and Logic (1936), p. 16.
Context: The criterion which we use to test the genuineness of apparent statements of fact is the criterion of verifiability. We say that a sentence is factually significant to any given person, if, and only if, he knows how to verify the proposition which it purports to express — that is, if he knows what observations would lead him, under certain conditions, to accept the proposition as being true, or reject it as being false.

“To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.”

Alfred Jules Ayer

"The Meaning of Life".
The Meaning of Life and Other Essays (1990)

“"I exist" does not follow from "there is a thought now." The fact that a thought occurs at a given moment does not entail that any other thought has occurred at any other moment, still less that there has occurred a series of thoughts sufficient to constitute a single self. As Hume conclusively showed, no one event intrinsically points to any other. We infer the existence of events which we are not actually observing, with the help of general principle. But these principles must be obtained inductively. By mere deduction from what is immediately given we cannot advance a single step beyond. And, consequently, any attempt to base a deductive system on propositions which describe what is immediately given is bound to be a failure.”

Alfred Jules Ayer book Language, Truth, and Logic

Source: Language, Truth, and Logic (1936), p. 47.

Failure , Help

“While moral rules may be propounded by authority the fact that these were so propounded would not validate them.”

Alfred Jules Ayer

"The Meaning of Life".
The Meaning of Life and Other Essays (1990)