Wilfrid Sellars (1912–1989)
Forfatter af Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind
Om forfatteren
Wilfrid Sellars taught at the University of Minnesota, Yale University, and the University of Pittsburgh. The son of the American philosopher Roy Wood Sellars, he won early fame at Minnesota as the coeditor of two volumes, one on logical analysis, the other on ethical theory, that introduced a vis mere generation of American students to the problems and issues of analytic philosophy. Readings in Philosophical Analysis (1949) was immediately adopted as the major textbook on analytic philosophy used in American colleges and universities, and his Readings in Ethical Theory (1952) was equally influential. E. W. Hall, reviewing the first edition for Ethics, declared that "This reviewer finds the volume intellectually exciting. . . . This result was achieved by a rigorous restriction in the range of material used and in a happy and entirely rational collection of it. The selections are uniformly high level: they reveal competent ethicists at work, writing for philosophically literate readers." Sellars's early articles, influenced by the logical atomism of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell (see also Vol. 5), reveal an inquisitive metaphysician who was also a careful student of the great figures in the history of philosophy. As Sellars matured, his work took a turn in the direction of Immanuel Kant and C. S. Peirce. From Kant he derived his sense of the role of conceptual structure---in the contemporary term, language---in shaping experience, so that there is no absolute given. From Peirce he gained insight into the normative aspect of all beliefs, including science. However, Sellars did not merely follow his sources. A profoundly original metaphysician, he transformed all these conceptions in the articulation of a philosophical system distinctively his own. His major book, Science and Metaphysics: Variations on Kantian Themes (1968), received great acclaim. The reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement noted: "Although Professor Sellar's philosophical writings make difficult reading, their content is rewarding. . . . What distinguishes [his] scientific realism from older and modern versions of scientism is his emphasis on the normative aspects of both practical and theoretical thinking." (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
Image credit: Photo at the top of the page is a gift from Cynthia Freeland. Taken by either her or Ken Alpern. Krist Bender, Cynthia's husband, scanned it.
Værker af Wilfrid Sellars
Associated Works
The Foundations of Science and the Concepts of Psychology and Psychoanalysis (1956) — Bidragyder — 27 eksemplarer
Values and Morals: Essays in Honor of William Frankena, Charles Stevenson, and Richard Brandt (1978) — Bidragyder — 9 eksemplarer
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Fødselsdato
- 1912-05-20
- Dødsdag
- 1989-07-02
- Køn
- male
- Relationer
- Sellars, Roy Wood (father)
Rosenberg, Jay F. (student) - Priser og hædersbevisninger
- President, American Philosophical Association Eastern Division (1970-71)
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Associated Authors
Statistikker
- Værker
- 23
- Also by
- 7
- Medlemmer
- 554
- Popularitet
- #45,050
- Vurdering
- 3.9
- Anmeldelser
- 7
- ISBN
- 45
- Sprog
- 7
- Udvalgt
- 2
Entretanto, como é comum ao autor, muitas vezes essas benesses estão escondidas sob um texto muito técnico e ao mesmo tempo esquivo, onde o excesso de discriminações e e bifurcações que dizem procurar tornar mais precisos os problemas acabam por tornar a posição do autor difícil de captar e dão uma impressão labiríntica; é normal sentir que a condução é errática, ao mesmo tempo sabendo que há algo de bastante preciso que emergirá dos confrontos ocultos dos textos. Assim, há uma clara escolha aqui de privilegiar o que o texto proporciona e não dizer simplesmente que podem ser problemáticos. É preciso gostar deles, de todo modo, para esperar o momento da segunda leitura.… (mere)