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STEBBING ON ‘THINKING TO SOME PURPOSE’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2019

Jane Duran
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Abstract

Susan Stebbing's Thinking to Some Purpose is analysed along the lines of contemporary efforts in critical thinking, and some of the problematized media material of her time. It is concluded that what Stebbing recommends is difficult to achieve, but worth the effort.

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 18 , Issue 51 , Spring 2019 , pp. 47 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2019 

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References

Notes

1 Stebbing, L. Susan, Thinking to Some Purpose (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1941), 9Google Scholar. For comparison, it is interesting to cite such works as Blumberg, Albert, Logic: an Introduction (New York: Prentice Hall, 1976)Google Scholar.

2 Ibid. 10–11.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid. 18.

5 Ibid. 22.

6 The title of her third chapter, pp. 27–36, is ‘The Mind in Blinkers’.

7 Ibid. 31.

8 Stebbing has a chapter with this title, and it is pp. 37–44 in the text.

9 Ibid. 37.

10 Ibid. 45. Stebbing claims that this is a direct quote from Punch, the satirical British publication. She does not provide a citation.

11 Ibid. 58–9.

12 Her Chapter VII, ‘Propaganda: an Obstacle’, is on pp. 62–73.

13 Ibid. 64.

14 See n. 10. In a somewhat humorous vein, Stebbing finds British publications particularly guilty of phrasing ‘information’ in such a way that it leads to poor thinking.

15 An interesting thought experiment here has to do with asking ourselves what Stebbing would have thought of today's media, including the internet. It is probably not an overstatement to say that she would not have been terribly impressed.

16 This particular chapter is Chapter VIII, pp. 73–80.

17 Ibid. 74.

18 As this is written, Chavez died after a long struggle with cancer. In a number of venues, he continued to be referred to as a ‘dictator’, and his efforts at redistribution – popular in leftist circles – were derided in a number of places as having accomplished little.

19 Ibid. 186–7. This chapter is on pp. 182–7.