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Science, Perception and Reality

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If there is a way philosophy should be done, this book shows the way. The two central essays of the volume, "Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man", and "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind", are some of the richest pieces in the entire corpus of 20th century philosophy. In the first, Sellars examines the crucial tension between our "ordinary" understanding of ourselves and the world, the Manifest Image, and a "corresponding" picture in the Scientific Image. According to this way of dividing up our confrontation with the world, Behaviorism turns out to belong largely, if not completely, to the Manifest Image of Man. The real drama takes place when the two images confront one another. How he handles this seeming conflict is better left to a primary reading of the text. The same goes for "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind". Neither essay will tolerate a single reading, so be prepared to spend a lot of time with this book. A word on style. Sellars writes much as he spoke, with little edited out. The result is a huge net of convoluted sentences that insist the reader not waste an ounce of concentration on anything else. In the end, there are few philosophical texts in this century that will be as gratifying and challenging as the ones contained in this volume.

This text is Sellars at his very best. The opening essay, "Philsophy and the Scientific Image of Man" is an excellent synoptic overview and introduction. One will find oneself constantly refering back to this essay as one moves on in the text. "The Language of Theories" brilliantly discusses Sellars' teleology, which is a Peirceian progression towards completed science. The centerpiece, of course, is "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind." This is the essay that put Sellars on the map. Along with introducing concepts such as psychological nominalism, it is a brilliant and largely flawless attack on logical empiricism. The text concludes with "Some Reflections on Language Games", a Wittgensteinian discussion centered around the notion that one must "live the game." If you only own one book from Sellars (which is no where near enough), make it this one.