Table Of ContentThinking to Some Purpose
‘I am convinced of the urgent need for a democratic people to think
clearly without the distortions due to unconscious bias and unrec-
ognized ignorance. Our failures in thinking are in part due to faults
which we could to some extent overcome were we to see clearly
how these faults arise. It is the aim of this book to make a small
effort in this direction.’
– Susan Stebbing, from the Preface
Despite huge advances in education, knowledge and communication,
it can often seem we are neither well trained nor well practised in the
art of clear thinking. Our powers of reasoning and argument are less
confident than they should be, we frequently ignore evidence and we
are all too often swayed by rhetoric rather than reason. But what can
you do to think and argue better?
First published in 1939 but unavailable for many years, Susan Steb-
bing’s Thinking to Some Purpose is a classic first-aid manual of how to think
clearly, and remains astonishingly fresh and insightful. Written against
a background of the rise of dictatorships and the collapse of democ-
racy in Europe, it is packed with useful tips and insights. Stebbing
offers shrewd advice on how to think critically and clearly, how to spot
illogical statements and slipshod thinking, and how to rely on reason
rather than emotion. At a time when we are again faced with serious
threats to democracy and freedom of thought, Stebbing’s advice re-
mains as urgent and important as ever.
This Routledge edition of Thinking to Some Purpose includes a new Fore-
word by Nigel Warburton and a helpful Introduction by Peter West,
who places Susan Stebbing’s classic book in historical and philosoph-
ical context.
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 ap-
pointed 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 Pur-
pose (1939) were critiques of the language used in
popular science communication and in everyday
genres such as political speeches, advertisements and
newspaper editorials.
Susan
Stebbing
Thinking to Some Purpose
With a new Foreword by Nigel Warburton and
a new Introduction by Peter West
Cover image: © Sergi Calaff Bayes / Getty Images
Back cover image: Susan Stebbing, by Howard Coster, half-plate
film negative, 1939, © National Portrait Gallery, London, CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0
First published by Routledge in 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Foreword © 2022 Nigel Warburton
Introduction © 2022 Peter West
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
First published in 1939 by Penguin Books Ltd.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Stebbing, L. Susan (Lizzie Susan), 1885–1943.
Title: Thinking to some purpose / Susan Stebbing ; with a new
foreword by Nigel Warburton and a new introduction by Peter West.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | First published
in 1939. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021059971 (print) | LCCN 2021059972
(ebook) | ISBN 9781032280660 (hardback) | ISBN
9781032155951 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003295181 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Thought and thinking.
Classification: LCC BC108 .S83 2022 (print) | LCC BC108
(ebook) | DDC 153.4/2—dc23/eng/20211217
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021059971
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021059972
ISBN: 978-1-032-28066-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-15595-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-29518-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/b22927
Typeset in Joanna
by codeMantra
IN MEMORIAM
H. L. S.
B. P. S.
And if we have a right to know any Truth whatsoever, we
have a right to think freely, or (according to my Definition)
to use our Understandings, in endeavouring to find out
the Meaning of any Proposition whatsoever, in considering
the nature of the Evidence for or against it, and in judging
of it according to the seeming Force or weakness of the
evidence: because there is no other way to discover the
Truth.
Anthony Collins, A Discourse of Free-Thinking, 1713
Contents
FOREWORD BY NIGEL WARBURTON xi
INTRODUCTION BY PETER WEST xv
PREFACE TO THE 1939 EDITION xxix
1 Prologue: Are the English Illogical? 1
2 Thinking and Doing 14
3 A Mind in Blinkers 27
4 You and I: I and You 41
5 Bad Language and Twisted Thinking 53
6 Potted Thinking 65
7 Propaganda: An Obstacle 77
8 Difficulties of an Audience 92
9 Illustration and Analogy 107
10 The Unpopularity of Being Moderate 130
