Logic in practice / by L. Susan Stebbing.

  • Stebbing, L. Susan (Lizzie Susan), 1885-1943.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Logic in practice / by L. Susan Stebbing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    discerning relevant connexions. Certainly a good observer is not one who ‘ stands and stares Staring is a sign of stupidity, or of an astonishment so pro- found as temporarily to destroy the power to think reflectively. In reasoning we select from a set of items presented to us just those which are significant of the facts we are trying to establish. Failure to be reasonable may occur in one or other of two very different ways. Significance may be missed through sheer ignorance or through passion and emotional attitudes which check clear-sighted apprehension. No doubt we all desire to be reasonable but few of us achieve this desire. Even those few are reasonable only at rare moments. Ignorance and passion present grave obstacles to be overcome only by a supreme desire to think clearly. The scientist is regarded as the exemplar of rationality. Within the field of his expert investigations he is, for here he has both relevant knowledge and a disinterested desire to understand merely for the sake of understanding. Confronted with problems of a different kind, such as those presented by a political crisis or by the behaviour of his children, he may allow passion to subdue reasoning, stupidly asking irrelevant questions and accepting irrelevant answers. Correct answers are as rare as they are difficult. Human beings from infancy upwards are confronted with problems. Our ability to deal with these prob- lems effectively depends in part upon our ability to think clbarly. It is as natural for men to think as to walk and to speak. Few of us, however, walk or speak well, although we may remain for ever unaware of our deficiencies in this respect. Where few attain a high level of excellence, the majority are apt not to