Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Future of Social Sciences and Humanities
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Susan Stebbing: On the Focus of Her Works and Her Place in History as A Neglected Female Philosopher
Maheshi Gunawardane
ABSTRACT:
Susan Stebbing, Great Britain’s first female professor of philosophy, was one of the pioneers in developing the ‘analytic’ tradition. She was also, the president of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association, two major philosophical associations in UK. She was also a formidable writer and published at least one paper in major philosophy journals every year between 1924 and 1939. Later in her life (1930s), she turned her devotion to composing texts for popular audiences, which resulted in her publishing a noteworthy book with the Pelican series: Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), described as a ‘first-aid’ towards clear thinking as a dedication to the public audience to propagate the awareness of ‘critical thinking’ in the face of democracy threats across Europe. However, Stebbing has been overlooked compared to her male contemporaries, such as G.E. Moore and Bertrand Russel. This paper will look into her life as a philosopher, bring the specialist areas of work and contributions to attention and provide a diagnosis of reasons for neglect by historians of analytic philosophy and marginalization of her works.
keywords: analytic philosophy, popular philosophy, critical thinking, neglected female philosopher, logic