A Study of Frege’s Influence on A. J. Ayer’s Theory of Emotivism

• Published in: Pizhūhishʹhā-yi falsafī-kalāmī : faṣlnāmah-ʼi Dānishgāh-i Qum Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 107 - 120
• Main Author: Mohsen Shiravand
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Qom 01-11-2020
• Subjects: ayer; emotivism; ethics; frege
• ISSN: 1735-9791; 2538-2500
• DOI: 10.22091/jptr.2020.5538.2327

No doubt, Gottlob Frege and A. J. Ayer are considered to be among the most prominent contemporary philosophers. Insofar as one of them has revolutionized the linguistic domain while the other has influenced the domain of ethics in a diametrical fashion. Ayer’s theory of emotivism is regarded as one of the most controversial moral theories in the past century. We believe that Frege, as a linguistic philosopher, has influenced emotivism in the methodological, logical, semantic, and epistemological domains. The emphasis on two fundamental principles of “compositionality” and “contextuality”; “the existence of mathematical concepts independent from mind”, “empiricism and verificationism” are all variables upon which emotivism is clearly dependent. The latter claim can be substantiated via analysis of the works of Ayer and particularly his “Language, Truth, and Logic” as well as his assertion in the introduction to this book concerning his debt to Frege. Among the most significant results of this essay, one can refer to the demonstration of the point that what constitutes the identity of the theory of emotivism is influenced by the “general line of linguistic analysis” in the aforementioned four domains.