O'Shea Wilfrid Sellars

Naturalism with a Normative Turn
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5095-0086-4
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 272 Seiten, E-Book

Reihe: Key Contemporary Thinkers

The work of the American philosopher Wilfrid Sellars continues tohave a significant impact on the contemporary philosophical scene.His writings have influenced major thinkers such as Rorty,McDowell, Brandom, and Dennett, and many of Sellars basicconceptions, such as the logical space of reasons, the myth of thegiven, and the manifest and scientific images, have become standardphilosophical terms. Often, however, recent uses of these terms donot reflect the richness or the true sense of Sellars originalideas. This book gets to the heart of Sellars philosophy andprovides students with a comprehensive critical introduction to hislifes work.
The book is structured around what Sellars himself regarded asthe philosophers overarching task: to achieve a coherent vision ofreality that will finally overcome the continuing clashes betweenthe world as common sense takes it to be and the world as sciencereveals it to be. It provides a clear analysis of Sellarsgroundbreaking philosophy of mind, his novel theory ofconsciousness, his defense of scientific realism, and histhoroughgoing naturalism with a normative turn. Providing a livelyexamination of Sellars work through the central problem of what itmeans to be a human being in a scientific world, this book will bea valuable resource for all students of philosophy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

O'Shea, James

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface ix
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction 1
1 The Philosophical Quest and the Clash of the Images10
The quest for a stereoscopic fusion of the manifest andscientific images 10
The clash of the images and the status of the sensible qualities14
Sensing, thinking, and willing: persons as complex physicalsystems? 17
2 Scientific Realism and the Scientific Image 23
Empiricist approaches to the interpretation of scientifictheories 24
Sellars' critique of empiricism and his defense ofscientific realism 32
The ontological primacy of the scientific image 41
3 Meaning and Abstract Entities 48
Approaching thought through language: is meaning a relation?49
Sellars' alternative functional role conception of meaning55
The problem of abstract entities: introducing Sellars'nominalism 63
Abstract entities: problems and prospects for the metalinguisticaccount 69
4 Thought, Language, and the Myth of Genius Jones 77
Meaning and pattern-governed linguistic behavior 77
Bedrock uniformity and rule-following normativity in the spaceof meanings 83
Our Rylean ancestors and genius Jones's theory of innerthoughts 86
Privileged access and other issues in Sellers' account ofthinking 97
5 Knowledge, Immediate Experience, and the Myth of the Given106
The idea of the given and the case of sense-datum theories107
Toward Sellers' account of perception and appearance118
Epistemic principles and the holistic structure of our knowledge125
Genius Jones, Act Two: the intrinsic character of our sensoryexperiences 136
6 Truth, Picturing, and Ultimate Ontology 143
Truth as semantic assertibility and truth as correspondence144
Picturing, linguistic representation, and reference 147
Truth, conceptual change, and the ideal scientific image 158
The ontology of sensory consciousness and absolute processes163
7 A Synoptic Vision: Sellers' Naturalism with aNormative Turn 176
The structure of Sellers' normative 'Copernicanrevolution' 176
Intentions, volitions, and the moral point of view 178
Persons in the synoptic vision 185
Notes 191
Bibliography 228
Index 243

Über Autor(innen)

James O'Shea, Lecturer in Philosophy, University College, Dublin