On Thinking to Some Purpose

“‘There is an urgent need today for the citizens of a democracy to think well.’ These words, which could have been written yesterday, come from Thinking to Some Purpose, a popular book by the British philosopher Susan Stebbing, first published in 1939 in the Penguin ‘Pelican’ books series, with that familiar blue-and-white cover. This little book, which could easily be slipped into a pocket and read on the train, in a lunch hour, or at a bus stop, was pitched at the intelligent general reader. In Thinking to Some Purpose, Stebbing took on the task of showing the relevance of logic to ordinary life, and she did so with a sense of urgency, well aware of the gathering storm clouds over Europe.”

Peter West - https://aeon.co/essays/on-susan-stebbing-and-the-role-of-public-philosophy. An interesting summary of what some hope philosophical skills can foster in democratic societies. The essay mentions John Dewey, who explicitly linked philosophical education to the practices necessary for democracy. As later pragmatists such as Jeffrey Stout noted in Democracy and Tradition, this relies on a rigorous defense of traditions that foster rich grass roots deliberative capacities. West’s essay on public philosophy has been widely circulated while the second impeachment trial is ongoing this week. Representative Jamie Raskin concluded his case with an appeal to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which he summarized as facts plain to most people as well as a human sense that is common. That latter notion made me think of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s summary of sensus communis in Truth and Method (p. 21-22) that looked back to Giambatist Vico who cited Roman Stoics interested in basic moral interest in the common good. It struck me that this is precisely what is eroding and what we must work to recover. Hannah Arendt discussed the challenge a bit in one of her last posthumously published 1975 lectures in a collection, Small Comforts for Hard Times. “Only when they [private individuals] can enjoy the public will they be willing and able to make sacrifices for the public good. To ask sacrifices of individuals who are not yet citizens is to ask them for an idealism which they do not have and cannot have in view of the urgency of the life process.” (.p. 105-107). Arendt was writing to a different time, but her words resonate as the pandemic rages on, economic struggles persist, and people are increasingly isolated from each other physically as well as through algorithmic information bubbles fostered online. The challenge remains to build democratic practices where common sense nonetheless persists.