Ruth Lydia Saw (1 August 1901 – 23 March 1986) was a British

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and aesthetician.

Education and career

Ruth Saw attended the County School for Girls in Wallington, Surrey, followed in 1926 by Bedford College, University of London, where she studied under Susan Stebbing. She accepted a position as lecturer in Philosophy at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

and remained there for several years. She then returned to England and was appointed to a Lecturership in Philosophy at Bedford College in 1939 and remained there for the rest of her career. She became Reader in Philosophy in 1946 and then Professor of Aesthetics from 1961–64. She was also Head of Department there from 1953 until her retirement in 1964. Saw's philosophical interests began with logic and philosophy of language, particularly on causal induction in Ockham's work. This moved towards metaphysics, particularly Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

on whom she wrote full-length works. By the 1950s her interests lay with aesthetics. She was appointed Professor of Aesthetics in the 1961 and published three articles on the subject in the early 1960s. Saw was a founding member of the

British Society of Aesthetics The British Society of Aesthetics (BSA) is a philosophical organization founded by Herbert Read in 1960 to promote the study of aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and tast ...

. In 1963 she became Vice-President of the Society, and in 1968, on the death of Sir Herbert, she became President. She began to play an active role in the

Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squar ...

from the mid-1930s eventually to become the fifth woman to be elected President of the Society in 1965.

Publications

*Saw, Ruth L. (1941). "William of Ockham on Terms, Propositions, Meaning". ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'' 42:45 - 64. *Saw, Ruth L. (1951). ''The Vindication of Metaphysics. A study in the philosophy of Spinoza"'. London: Macmillan. *Saw, Ruth L. (1952). "Our knowledge of individuals". ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'' 52:167-188. *Saw, Ruth L. (1954). ''Leibniz''. London: Penguin Books. *Saw, Ruth L. (1954). "Way to Wisdom: an Introduction to Philosophy. By Karl Jaspers. Translated by Ralph Manheim. (London: Gollancz, 1951, pp. 208. Price 10s. 6d.)". ''Philosophy'' 29 (109):176-. *Saw, Ruth L. (1964). "E. F. Carritt". ''British Journal of Aesthetics'' 4 (1):3-6. *Saw, Ruth L. (1969). "Personal identity in Spinoza". ''Inquiry'' 12 (1-4):1 – 14. *Saw, Ruth L. (1973). "Aesthetics: An Introduction". ''Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'' 31 (4):543-544.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saw, Ruth L. 1901 births 1986 deaths Philosophers of art 20th-century British philosophers 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century British women writers Presidents of the Aristotelian Society Alumni of Bedford College, London