Susan Stebbing 1885 – 1943
L. Susan Stebbing was a British analytic philosopher and the first woman in the United Kingdom to hold a full professorship in philosophy, at Bedford College, London. A pupil of W. E. Johnson at Cambridge, she produced major works in logic, including A Modern Introduction to Logic, and engaged the new physics in Philosophy and the Physicists. Her wartime book Thinking to Some Purpose argued that clear thinking is a duty of citizenship and exposed the loose reasoning of public life and propaganda. She died of cancer in 1943.
Key facts
- Nationality
- British
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Susan Stebbing:
“Logic is the art of clear thinking.”
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Attributed to Susan Stebbing:
“Bad arguments are not corrected by good intentions.”
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Attributed to Susan Stebbing:
“Philosophy ought to be intelligible to those who are not philosophers.”
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Attributed to Susan Stebbing:
“We must distinguish in order to think clearly.”
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Attributed to Susan Stebbing:
“To think clearly is the duty of a citizen.”