Introduction

“Short, sharp and shocking” was the verdict of those who read Language, Truth and Logic when it was first published in January 1936. And it has retained much of its impact. It remains the best short introduction to an influential, if controversial, version of ideas associated with logical positivism in the first half of the twentieth century; its arguments have a cutting edge and they still challenge the book's readers; and although the passage of time has blunted its power to shock and disturb, it still reads like the provocative manifesto for a revolution intended to sweep away what its author saw as the over-ambitious exercises in thinking that characterized much of academic philosophy at that time. It was clearly intended to unsettle complacent readers, and it still provokes vigorous reactions, both positive and negative. Few are left unmoved. Some think its conclusions totally untenable and judge that the arguments leading to those conclusions must be faulty because no respectable arguments could lead to such conclusions. There have been, as a consequence, some sharp criticisms of some of those arguments. Others find its conclusions refreshing and agreeable, and think that the arguments used to establish them must be broadly sound. They have urged that most of its claims and conclusions are, with the help of some qualifications, correct and the arguments establishing them are sound, or can be made so by greater attention to some details.