Wilfrid Sellars
Wilfrid Stalker Sellars (born May 20, 1912 in Michigan , † July 2, 1989 in Pittsburgh ) was an American philosopher who mainly taught in Pittsburgh. Sellars made contributions to the philosophy of mind , epistemology and metaphysics . He represented the position of naturalism .
Life
Wilfrid Sellars was the son of the philosopher Roy Wood Sellars . After studying at the University of Michigan and Oxford University , Sellars taught in Iowa , Minnesota and Yale before accepting a professorship at the University of Pittsburgh in 1963 . In 1971 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
His main areas of work were epistemology , the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of perception . In doing so, he mainly followed the work of Willard Van Orman Quine , whose criticism of classical empiricism he intensified. The dichotomy between perception and reasoning, which is one of its central aspects, was radically rejected.
His major students include Robert Brandom , Ruth Millikan , John McDowell , John Haugeland, and Jay Rosenberg . The best-known constructive Sellars reception, however, comes from Richard Rorty , who in his book Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature repeatedly refers to Sellars' attacks on the idea of the "given", expands it and leads to radical consequences.
Works (selection)
- Pure Pragmatics and Possible Worlds-The Early Essays of Wilfrid Sellars, [PPPW], ed. By Jeffrey F. Sicha, (Ridgeview Publishing Co; Atascadero, CA; 1980).
- Science, Perception and Reality, [SPR], (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd; London, and The Humanities Press: New York; 1963).
- Philosophical Perspectives, [PP], (Charles C. Thomas: Springfield, IL; 1967). Reprinted in two volumes, Philosophical Perspectives: History of Philosophy and Philosophical Perspective: Metaphysics and Epistemology, (Ridgeview Publishing Co .; Atascadero, CA; 1977).
- Science and Metaphysics: Variations on Kantian Themes. [S&M], (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd; London, and The Humanities Press; New York; 1968).
- Essays in Philosophy and Its History, [EPH], (D. Reidel Publishing Co .; Dordrecht, Holland; 1975).
- Naturalism and Ontology, [N&O], (Ridgeview Publishing Co .; Atascadero, CA: 1979). [An expanded version of the 1974 John Dewey Lectures]
- The Metaphysics of Epistemology, Lectures by Wilfrid Sellars, edited by Pedro Amaral, (Ridgeview Publishing Co .; Atascadero, CA; 1989).
- Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind [EPM *], edited by Robert Brandom, (Harvard University Press .; Cambridge, MA; 1997).
- Kant and Pre-Kantian Themes: Lectures by Wilfrid Sellars, edited by Pedro Amaral, (Ridgeview Publishing Co .; Atascadero, CA: 2002).
- Kant's Transcendental Metaphysics: Sellars' Cassirer Lecture Notes and Other Essays, edited by Jeffrey F. Sicha, (Ridgeview Publishing Co .; Atascadero, CA: 2002).
In German is available:
- Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind (1999).
literature
- Carl Friedrich Gethmann (philosopher) : Sellars , in: Jürgen Mittelstraß (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia Philosophy and Philosophy of Science. 2nd Edition. Volume 7. Stuttgart, Metzler 2018, ISBN 978-3-476-02106-9 , pp. 332 - 334 (with a detailed list of works and literature) (German)
- Willem A. deVries: Wilfrid Sellars ; Durham, Acumen Publishing, 2005; ISBN 1-84465-039-1 (English)
- James R. O'Shea (Ed.): Sellars and his Legacy; Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016; ISBN 978-0-19-876687-2 (English)
- Johanna Seibt: Wilfrid Sellars ; Paderborn, Mentis, 2007; ISBN 978-3-89785-502-1 (German)
Web links
- Literature by and about Wilfrid Sellars in the catalog of the German National Library
- Wilfrid Sellars on Philosophie-Seiten.de (links to Sellars texts)
- Sellars, Wilfrid , on Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind
- Wilfrid Sellars: Naturalism and Ontology (video: Dewey Lectures)
- Primary texts
- Wilfrid Sellars: The Myth of the Given (on: Gleichsatz.de)
- Wilfrid Sellars: Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man
- Wilfrid Sellars: Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind
- Wilfrid Sellars: Empiricism and Abstract Entities
- Wilfrid Sellars: Presupposing
- Secondary literature
- AW Carus: Sellars, Carnap, and the Logical Space of Reasons
- Andrew Chrucky Problems from Wilfrid Sellars
- Paul Coates: Wilfrid Sellars, Perceptual Consciousness and Theories of Attention
- Willem deVries: Wilfrid Sellars. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
- Willem deVries: Sellars vs. McDowell on the Structure of Sensory Consciousness
- Wolfgang Huemer: Wilfrid Sellars' utopia of a synoptic view
- Jeremy Randel Koons: Sellars, Giveness end Epistemic Priority
- Paul Redding: Wilfrid Sellarsʼs Disambiguation of Kantʼs “Intuition” and its Relevance for Conceptions of Perceptual Content
- Eric M. Rubenstein: Sellars' Philosophy of Mind. In: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
- James R. O'Shea: CI Lewis and Sellars on the Given - Relocating the Myth
- James R. O'Shea: Revisiting Sellars on the Myth of the Given
- Kevin Scharp: Wilfrid Sellars Anti-Descriptivism
- Heinrich Watzka : Brandom, Sellars and the 'Myth of the Given'
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Sellars, Wilfrid |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sellars, Wilfrid Stalker |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American philosopher |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 20, 1912 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Michigan |
DATE OF DEATH | July 2nd 1989 |
Place of death | Pittsburgh |