Knowledge, Mind and the Given: Reading Wilfrid Sellars' Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind, Including the Complete Text of Sellars' Essay / Edition 1

by Willem A. deVries, Timm Triplett

Overview

"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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780872205505
Publisher:	Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

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

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

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Preface: A Guide for the Perplexed	xi
	Introduction	xv
1	EPM Part I: An Ambiguity in Sense-Datum Theories	1
2	EPM Part II: Another Language?	16
3	EPM Part III: The Logic of 'Looks'	19
4	EPM Part IV: Explaining Looks	34
5	EPM Part V: Impressions and Ideas: A Logical Point	46
6	EPM Part VI: Impressions and Ideas: An Historical Point	52
7	EPM Part VII: The Logic of 'Means'	59
8	EPM Part VIII: Does Empirical Knowledge Have a Foundation?	67
9	EPM Part IX: Science and Ordinary Usage	108
10	EPM Part X: Private Episodes: The Problem	117
11	EPM Part XI: Thoughts: The Classical View	123
12	EPM Part XII: Our Rylean Ancestors	126
13	EPM Part XIII: Theories and Models	132
14	EPM Part XIV: Methodological versus Philosophical Behaviorism	136
15	EPM Part XV: The Logic of Private Episodes: Thoughts	141
16	EPM Part XVI: The Logic of Private Episodes: Impressions	158
	Glossary	179
	References	198
Appendix	Wilfrid Sellars	205
	Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind
	Index	277

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher