PANTHEON
ExploreBuild My Library
© 2026 Pantheon — an atlas of the ideas that shaped how we think.
book1936

Language, Truth and Logic

Disciplines:
ethics
epistemology
philosophy/philosophy of language

Summary

A. J. Ayer's influential introduction to logical empiricism arguing for the verificationist criterion of meaning and emotivism about ethics.

Core Contribution

The verification principle: a proposition is meaningful only if it is either analytically true or empirically verifiable; metaphysics, theology, and traditional epistemology are cognitively meaningless. Moral statements express emotional attitudes.

Historical Influences

A. J. Ayer

Intellectual Lineage

No conceptual lineage found.

Allied Works

The Logical Structure of the World Two Dogmas of Empiricism

Contemporaries & Peers

No recorded contemporaries.

Minds Influenced

No recorded minds influenced.

Intellectual Posterity

No conceptual posterity found.

Discussing

Language, Truth and Logic

Ask anything about Language, Truth and Logic — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

Sign in to start a conversation.