The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge

✍ Scribed by A.J. Ayer

• Publisher: MacMillan
• Year: 1964
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 290
• Edition: Paperback
• Category: Library

✦ Table of Contents

I The Argument from Illusion i
I Exposition of the Argument i
2. Evaluation of the Argument . ii
3 The Introduction of Sense-data 19
4 Misuses of the Argument from Illusion 28
5 Theories of Perception as Alternative
Languages 46
II The Characterization of Sense-data 58
6 Acts and Objects in Sensation . 58
7
“
Esse est Percipi ” . 65
8 Sensing and Knowing . 78
9 The Errors of Formalism 84
10 Sentences, Propositions, and Facts . 92
11 The Nature of the " Given ” . _ 113
III The Egocentric Predicament . 136
12 The Privacy of Personal Experience 136
13 Public and Private Languages . 146
14 Concerning the Privacy of Sense-data and
the Publicity of the Material World . 153
15- The Hypothesis of the Existence of Other
People’s Experiences 162
IV. Causality and Perception 171
16, The Causal Theory of Perception 171
17 Formulation of “ the Principle of Determinism ” 179
s FOUNDATIONS OF EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE
PAGE
1 8 The Animistic Idea of Necessary Connexion . . 183
19 Criticism and the Rationalist Interpretation
of Causal Laws 199
20 Evaluation of " the Principle of Determinism ” 207
21 The Causation of Sense-data 220
V The Constitution of Material Things 229
22 Concerning Phenomenalism 229
23 Elementary Construction of the Material
World 243
24 Appearance and Reality 263
Index 275