Knowledge, Mind, and the Given : Reading Wilfrid Sellars's "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind," Including the Complete Text of Sellars's Essay [Paperback]

Willem A. Devries (Author), Timm Triplett (Author), Wilfrid Sellars (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book 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 interpretative 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.

About the Author

Willem A Devries and Timm Triplett

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hackett Publishing Co. (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872205509
• ISBN-13: 978-0872205505
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sellars and Clarity, January 17, 2003

By 

Flounder (Substitution Instance) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Knowledge, Mind, and the Given : Reading Wilfrid Sellars's "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind," Including the Complete Text of Sellars's Essay (Paperback)

This is a good book which would serve well as an introduction to Sellars's dense "EPM." It provides background information on sense-datum theories, a contextual overview, clarification (i.e., shows the arguments) in each section of the text, and offers insightful commentary on each section. "EPM" is included at the end of the text.

I highly recommend this book, along with Sellars's other work, and McDowell's Mind and World.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect companion to Sellars' essay, September 24, 2010

By 

E. Thomson (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Knowledge, Mind, and the Given : Reading Wilfrid Sellars's "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind," Including the Complete Text of Sellars's Essay (Paperback)

If you have struggled, like many of us have, to understand Sellars' essay, this is the book for you.

I worked through Sellars' essay using this book as a companion volume, and it was incredibly helpful.

Why does this single essay deserve a guide? First, because of its importance. In this essay you will find precursors to many modern strands of thought, such as the 'language of thought' hypothesis, coherence theories of justification, and even pragmatic theories of meaning.

Unfortunately, the essay is also very difficult to understand. Sellars assumed working familiarity with the main currents in philosophy as understood by a philosopher in the 1950s. He also assumes familiarity with historical figures such as Kant. Finally, even if you have said familiarity, the essay is dense and sometimes uses rather tortured prose that can be very difficult to understand.

So, if you find yourself stumbling to understand 'Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind', buy this book immediately. You will be very glad you did. It is extremely clearly written, and it removes the requirement that you have a degree in philosophy to understand Sellars' seminal essay.

2 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars what is this all about?, October 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Knowledge, Mind, and the Given : Reading Wilfrid Sellars's "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind," Including the Complete Text of Sellars's Essay (Paperback)

the commentary writers are offering here is crowded with the details of Sellar's essay and quite at no point supplies a general foothold to make Sellar's work and what's original in it understandable (which I finally can not appreciate how philosophically original it is).