A. J. Ayer studied in Oxford under the direction of Gilbert Ryle. In 1932, Ryle advised Ayer to visit the Vienna Circle, and Ayer returned to England an enthusiastic supporter of logical positivism. His Language, Truth and Logic (1936) was an influential and popular exposition of logical positivism, the first book-length study to be published in English. In the 1930s, Ayer taught at the University of London and, during the Second World War, he worked in military intelligence. In 1959, he was appointed the Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. Ayer was a well-known public figure in Britain.
