Philosophical Essays.

INSCRIBED TO AYER'S PROVOST.

First edition. 8vo. xi, [1], 289, [1] pp. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, dust jacket (jacket price clipped and ever so slightly toned, otherwise a very good copy). London, MacMillan & Co Ltd. 

A presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the influential British university administrator Sir Ifor Evans, Baron Evans of Hungershall (1899-1982) "... from Freddie Ayer, June 1955" in black ink to the front free endpaper. Evans was Provost of University College London from 1951 to 1966, where Ayer held the position of Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic from 1946 until 1959.

A collection of twelve essays, all previously published separately in journals between 1945 and 1953, on freedom, phenomenalism, basic propositions, utilitarianism, other minds, the past, and ontology. A number of the essays - namely 'Individuals', 'On What There Is', 'The Identity of Indiscernibles', and 'Negation' - variously respond to the philosophy of Willard Van Orman Quine, with particular reference to Quine's generalised version of Russell's theory of descriptions. 

Stock Code: 233630