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

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

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 The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, where she studied under

Susan Stebbing Lizzie Susan Stebbing (2 December 1885 – 11 September 1943) was a British philosopher. She belonged to the 1930s generation of analytic philosophy, and was a founder in 1933 of the journal ''Analysis.'' Stebbing was the first woman to hold a p ...

. 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, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

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 to 1964. 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 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to ...

and

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

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. 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 British 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