Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Alfred Jules Ayer
Alfred Jules Ayer -
Thought
Quotes
3 Sourced Quotes
View all Alfred Jules Ayer Quotes
Source
Report...
I suddenly stopped and looked out at the sea and
thought
, my God, how beautiful this is … for 26 years I had never really looked at it before.
Alfred Jules Ayer
Source
Report...
I am using the word "perceive". I am using it here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word. If there is
thought
to be a difficulty here, it is perhaps because there is also a correct and familiar usage of the word "perceive", in which to say of an object that it is perceived does carry the implication that it exists.
Alfred Jules Ayer
Source
Report...
"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
Quote of the day
Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth. Things appear far beyond one's power, because one cannot set his heart on any arduous project due to want of strong will.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Alfred Jules Ayer
Born:
October 29, 1910
Died:
June 27, 1989
(aged 78)
More about Alfred Jules Ayer...
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes