Vol. 21 No. 14 · 15 July 1999
pages 9-10 | 2633 words
Out of Sight, out of Mind
Frank Kermode
- A.J. Ayer: A Life by Ben Rogers
Chatto, 402 pp, £20.00, June 1999, ISBN 0 7011 6316 X
A.J. Ayer, says Ben Rogers, had a ‘pampered upbringing, even by Edwardian standards’. He suffered much at prep school, then went to Eton, where he suffered less and got over it. The next move, to Christ Church, was painless. Oxford gave him Gilbert Ryle as his tutor and appointed him to a lectureship before he graduated.
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Letters
Vol. 21 No. 15 · 29 July 1999
From George Barnard
Frank Kermode's review of Ben Rogers's A.J. Ayer (LRB, 15 July) prompts me to enquire whether anyone knows why Ayer never met Wittgenstein. When I attended Wittgenstein's 'Conversation Class' – three hours, three times a week – in 1933, Margaret Masterman, Richard Braithwaite's wife, was attending on her husband's behalf, after he had been banished for writing a piece in Cambridge Essays which dared to attempt an explanation of Wittgenstein's ideas, in the course of saying it was the most important work in philosophy then current in Cambridge. It is not difficult to guess what Gilbert Ryle might have said to Ayer, but specific confirmation, if it were available, would be interesting.
George Barnard
Brightlingsea, Essex
Vol. 21 No. 16 · 19 August 1999
From Philip Hoy
George Barnard (Letters, 29 July) seems to have misunderstood Frank Kermode, who, in his review of Ben Rogers's A.J. Ayer: A Life, said not that 'Ayer never met Wittgenstein' but that 'at Ryle's suggestion he gave up the idea of sitting at Wittgenstein's feet in Cambridge and instead went to Vienna to work with Moritz Schlick.' The two men did meet, on at least two occasions, both of which are described by Rogers, as they were earlier, and more fully, described by Ayer himself, in Part of My Life. Rogers and Ayer give divergent accounts of Ryle's reasons for recommending that Ayer should study with Schlick rather than Wittgenstein. According to Rogers, Ayer's 'first thought had been to work under Wittgenstein at Cambridge. Ryle, however, argued that the veneration Wittgenstein expected from his students was bad for both teacher and pupil' and Ryle 'must have realised that Ayer was particularly ill-suited to sit at anyone's feet'. But Ayer's account is as follows:
My first inclination was to spend this time in Cambridge, learning all that I could from Wittgenstein, but Gilbert Ryle had what he thought was a better idea. He had met Moritz Schlick … and been very impressed by him. He therefore suggested that I should go to Vienna, enrol myself at the University, and learn as much as I could of the work that the Vienna Circle was doing. As almost nothing was known about them in England, he represented to me that by coming back with a report of their activities I should not only be benefiting myself but performing a public service.
Philip Hoy
London N4
