The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge.

AYER, Alfred J. [A.J.].

$975.00

Item Number: 133103

London : Macmillan & Co, 1962.

Later printing of this classic work. Octavo, original wrappers. Signed by the author on the half-title page, “with best wishes A.J. Ayer Mexico City September 11 1963.” In very good condition. From the library of Sergio Munoz, who was a friend of the author. Books signed by Ayer are scarce.

In a series of important papers and a book, The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge, Alfred J. Ayer wrestled with critics who doubted that all meaningful discourse could be analyzed in terms of sense experience. In particular, he turned for the first time to a careful analysis of the “sense-data” that empiricists had always claimed were the basis of all real knowledge. In a characteristic move, Ayer now contended that sense-data should be understood not as part of the furniture of the world but as conceptual constructs, or logical fictions, that allow one to distinguish between sensory experience and matter and between appearance and reality.