Foreword to the Routledge Edition Nigel Warburton
Introduction to the Routledge Edition Peter West
Preface to the 1939 Edition Susan Stebbing
1. Prologue: Are the English Illogical?
2. Thinking and Doing
3. A Mind in Blinkers
4. You and I: And You
5. Bad Language and Twisted Thinking
6. Potted Thinking
7. Propaganda: An Obstacle
8. Difficulties of an Audience
9. Illustration and Analogy
10. The Unpopularity of Being Moderate
11. On Being Misled by Half, and Other Fractions
12. Slipping Away from the Point
13. Taking Advantage of Our Stupidity
14. Testing our Beliefs
15. Epilogue: Democracy and Freedom of Mind.
Index
Biography
Susan Stebbing (1885–1943) was a leading figure in British philosophy between the First and Second World Wars. The first woman in the UK to be appointed to a full professorship in philosophy, in 1933, she taught at Bedford College (now Royal Holloway University). She was best known for her work on logic before turning more generally to the study of thinking and reasoning. At a time when analytic philosophy was largely confined to technical questions, her work stood out for engaging with contemporary issues and addressing a wider public audience. Philosophy and the Physicists (1937) and Thinking to Some Purpose (1939) were critiques of the language used in popular science communication and in everyday genres such as political speeches, advertisements and newspaper editorials.
