Knowledge, Mind, and the Given

“Sellars’ s argument in EPM is enormously rich, subtle, and compelling. It is also, for the uninitiated, extraordinarily dense. Willem deVries and Timm Triplett’s comprehensive commentary Knowledge, Mind, and the Given provides a much needed guide. Beginning with a general overview to introduce some main themes and difficulties, deVries and Triplett take the reader step by step through the sixteen parts of the essay, providing at each stage necessary background, illuminating connections, and insightful clarifications of the main lines of argument. . . . deVries and Triplett have written a fine introduction to Sellars’s most important work.”
     —Danielle Macbeth, The Philosophical Review

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Reading Wilfrid Sellars's "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind," Including the Complete Text of Sellars's Essay

Willem A. Devries & Timm Triplett

2000 - 320 pp.

Grouped product items
Format ISBN Price Qty
Cloth 978-0-87220-551-2
$48.00
Paper 978-0-87220-550-5
$20.00

Knowledge, Mind, and the Given serves three purposes, and it serves them very well. First, it patiently, accurately and comprehensively supplies the necessary information about the historical and contemporaneous ideas, views, problems and theories which constitute the conceptual setting for Sellars’s theses and argumentation. Second, it provides a careful and lucid section-by-section interpretive explanation of Sellars’s own principal views and claims and, crucially, undertakes to support them. And third, it offers its readers the beginnings of an engaged critical discussion of Sellars’s critique of givenness and epistemological foundationalism. What is particularly impressive about this work is its marvelous clarity. . . a highly polished, accessible text. . .”
     —Jay F. Rosenberg, Taylor Grandy Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

 

“Sellars’ s argument in EPM is enormously rich, subtle, and compelling. It is also, for the uninitiated, extraordinarily dense. Willem deVries and Timm Triplett’s comprehensive commentary Knowledge, Mind, and the Given provides a much needed guide. Beginning with a general overview to introduce some main themes and difficulties, deVries and Triplett take the reader step by step through the sixteen parts of the essay, providing at each stage necessary background, illuminating connections, and insightful clarifications of the main lines of argument. . . . deVries and Triplett have written a fine introduction to Sellars’s most important work.”
     —Danielle Macbeth, The Philosophical Review

 

Contents:

Acknowledgments. Preface: A Guide for the Perplexed. Introduction.

1. EPM Part I: An Ambiguity in Sense-Datum Theories.
2. EPM Part II: Another Language?
3. EPM Part III: The Logic of “Looks”.
4. EPM Part IV: Explaining Looks.
5. EPM Part V: Impressions and Ideas: A Logical Point.
6. EPM Part VI: Impressions and Ideas: An Historical Point.
7. EPM Part VII: The Logic of “Means”.
8. EPM Part VIII: Does Empirical Knowledge Have a Foundation?
9. EPM Part IX: Science and Ordinary Usage.
10. EPM Part X: Private Episodes: The Problem.
11. EPM Part XI: Thoughts: The Classical View.
12. EPM Part XII: Our Rylean Ancestors.
13. EPM Part XIII: Theories and Models.
14. EPM Part XIV: Methodological versus Philosophical Behaviorism.
15. EPM Part XV: The Logic of Private Episodes: Thoughts.
16. EPM Part XVI: The Logic of Private Episodes: Impressions.

Glossary. References. Appendix: Wilfrid Sellars, Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind. Index.

 

About the Authors:

Willem A. deVries is Professor of Philosophy, University of New Hampshire.

Timm Triplett is Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of New Hampshire.