Thinking to Some Purpose

Thinking to Some Purpose by Susan Stebbing is a classic first-aid manual of how to think clearly, offering useful tips and insights on how to think critically and clearly, spot illogical statements, and rely on reason rather than emotion. Despite advances in education, knowledge, and communication, we are often not well-trained or well-practised in the art of clear thinking. This Routledge edition includes a new Foreword by Nigel Warburton and an Introduction by Peter West.

Format: Hardback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 30 June 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The urgent need for a democratic people to think clearly without the distortions due to unconscious bias and unrecognized ignorance is a pressing concern. Our failures in thinking are partly attributed to faults that we can overcome if we can clearly understand how they arise. This book aims to make a modest contribution to this endeavor.

Despite significant advancements in education, knowledge, and communication, it can often seem that we are not well-trained or well-practiced in the art of clear thinking. Our powers of reasoning and argument are less confident than they should be, and we frequently ignore evidence and are swayed by rhetoric rather than reason. However, what can we do to think and argue better?

First published in 1939 but unavailable for many years, Susan Stebbing's Thinking to Some Purpose is a classic first-aid manual of how to think clearly, and it remains astonishingly fresh and insightful. Written against the backdrop of the rise of dictatorships and the collapse of democracy 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, Stebbings's advice remains as urgent and important as ever.

This Routledge edition of Thinking to Some Purpose includes a new Foreword by Nigel Warburton and a helpful Introduction by Peter West, who places Susan Stebbings's classic book in historical and philosophical context.

Weight: 700g
Dimension: 198 x 129 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032280660