Susan Stebbing

L. (Lizzie) Susan Stebbing (December 2, 1885 – September 11, 1943) was an English philosopher. She belonged to the 1930s generation of analytic philosophy.

Quotes

Thinking to Some Purpose (1939)

• I am convinced of the urgent need for democratic people to think clearly without the distortions due to unconscious bias and unrecognised ignorance. Our failures in thinking in part due to our faults which we could to some extent overcome were we to see clearly how these faults arise.
  • As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), Preface

• ...we easily fall into the habit of accepting compressed statements which save us from the trouble of thinking. Thus arises what I shall call ‘Potted Thinking’.
  • As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 63

• ...potted thinking is easily accepted, is concentrated in form, and has lost the vitamins essential to mental nourishment.
  • As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 63

• We must face the unfortunate fact that we are moved to the acceptance of beliefs by factors that are wholly irrelevant to their truth.
  • As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 100

• There are many ways of being wrong, but only one way of being right.
  • As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 153

• We are content to accept without testing any belief that fits in with our prejudices and whose truth is necessary for the satisfaction of our desires.
  • As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 204

• Perceiving involves more than being sensibly aware of something present to the senses; it involves the activity of perceiving. This is the activity of a person, and in perceiving, the whole person is involved, not merely one or other of his sense organs.
  • As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 206

• A mind in blinkers is a mind that is unfree.
  • As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 241

A Modern Introduction to Logic

• A system is said to be coherent if every fact in the system is related every other fact in the system by relations that are not merely conjunctive. A deductive system affords a good example of a coherent system.
  • As quoted in A Modern Introduction to Logic (1930), p. 198.