[Hank Kerchief]

Read some Ayer followed by Wittgenstein and you might begin to understand the issues.

I've read them. They're wrong. You read them, and believed them, but that is not surprising for one who believes words do not have to have exact meanings. No doubt it is comforting to have someone reinforce one's cherished irrationalities, expecially if they call themselves philosophers.

No wonder the world of philosophy is collapsing, its full of mystics, neo-palonists, and linquistic analysists.

Sorry, this mystic garbledegook gets no purchase here.

Hank

[JohnSmithee]

"I've read them. They're wrong."

Hehe, no one expects a philosopher to be "right" or "wrong", especially somone like Wittgentstein who changed his philosophical outlook more than once in his life.

"You read them, and believed them"

No, it's not a question of being "right" or "wrong" but of awareness. They raise issues that are not addressed by an oversimplistic understanding of language.

"but that is not surprising for one who believes words do not have to have exact meanings."

You really are talking out of your hat now. Words have always had inexact meanings and to pretend otherwise is to display simple ignorance on how words are defined.

As a start, define "exactly" the following words:

atom, exact, entity, liquid, hot, mind

"No doubt it is comforting to have someone reinforce one's cherished irrationalities"

Actually, I'm Agnostic, so I really don't know what you are talking about here.

"No" - what do you mean?
"wonder" - what do you mean?
"the" - what do you mean?
"world" - what do you mean?
"of" - what do you mean?
"philosophy" - what do you mean?
"is" - what do you mean?
"collapsing", - what do you mean?
"its" - what do you mean?
"full" - what do you mean?
"of" - what do you mean?
"mystics", - what do you mean?
"neo-palonists", - what do you mean?
"and" - what do you mean?
"linquistic" - what do you mean?
"analysists" - what do you mean?

Every term you used above has an "inexact" meaning depending on any number of factors...

[JohnSmithee]

"I've read them. They're wrong."

What exactly have you read of Ayer and how is he wrong?

[JohnSmithee]

"No doubt it is comforting to have someone reinforce one's cherished irrationalities, expecially if they call themselves philosophers."

Since Ayer was a well logical positivist I would tend to disagree with his perspective.