The Book That Changed My Life: 'Language, Truth and Logic', 'The Gospel According to Woman' and 'Death and The Dervish'

 Alec Powell

Language, Truth and Logic by A.J. Ayer

The book that changed my life was Language, Truth and Logic by A.J. Ayer. I read this book in my late teens, having recently developed an interest in Philosophy. I was captivated by issues to do with knowledge and could not see how any of the problems posed by the Ancient Greeks could ever truly be answered. That was until I read Language, Truth and Logic. By re-examining philosophical problems through the lens of language, Ayer was able to sweep all traditional philosophical problems aside. The question of God’s existence was classified as meaningless whilst problems of ethics were reduced to mere expressions of emotion; discussion of a world beyond our senses was dismissed and the whole of Mathematics was reduced to nothing more than the fact that A=A.

Ayer wrote LTL in 1936 when he was only 25 years old. His book was credited with being a breath of fresh air that had revitalised British Philosophy and I was thrilled and impressed when I read it. Inspired by this book, I went on to study Philosophy at University and it was there that I realised that many of the problems were far more complicated than Ayer had suggested. Later in his life, Ayer himself admitted that most of what he had claimed in ‘Language, Truth and Logic’ had been mistaken. Despite this I still find myself drawn to some of its conclusions, attracted most of all by the certainty with which they were expressed.

 Jo Morgan

The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West by Karen Armstrong 

Believe it or not, I was a pretty devout Catholic as a teenager and even received my confirmation at age 14. I genuinely believed in God and once thought I had a religious experience in St John's Cathedral in town. Sadly, my youthful naivety began to crack as I heard reports of Catholic priests abusing children, the vicious treatment of single mothers in Ireland and the corrupt institutional cover-ups led by the church itself. 

My nickname at school was 'Pilgrim Jo' as I loved my RE lessons (hence my later career choices). But rather than nurture me further into the faith, these lessons made me question everything more. Examining the Church's stance on abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage and so on left me feeling outraged and disillusioned. 

It was around this time that I came across Karen Armstrong's The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West. All of the inconsistencies I was wrestling with, all of the outrage I felt, was articulated in this book. There was sex, gender, sexuality, feminism, religion. It was all going on! 

Years later, when I chose Theology and Religious Studies for my degree, it was this book I was thinking about. I have never rediscovered my faith but my love for the subject continues. 

Pande Shahov

Death and the Dervish by Meša Selimović

This book might be suitable only for Y10 onwards. It is a book that influenced my thoughts about society and integrity: The Dervish and the Death by the Bosnian writer Meša Selimović. For me, this book is not about death, but about life: how people, who want to be good persons, relate to people who do not want to be (or simply cannot). It's about integrity versus compromise, and preserving your integrity when you are just one little piece of a large, uneasy  kaleidoscope. It is also opening a little window into the intricate tapestry of the Bosnian society two centuries ago, so it relates to political themes which resonate to the present day, unfortunately, in this complex region.