zoom_in Click to enlarge

Wilfrid Sellars

▲ ▼

description Wilfrid Sellars Overview

Wilfrid Sellars was a prominent American philosopher known for his work in epistemology and philosophy of mind. His key contribution was challenging conventional understandings of experience, particularly through his critique of empiricism. He argued against the idea of “given” knowledge, proposing instead a focus on intentionality and the relationship between consciousness and reality. Sellars' ideas remain influential within analytic philosophy and are studied by scholars investigating how we understand and interact with the world.

help Wilfrid Sellars FAQ

What did Wilfrid Sellars mean by the myth of the given?

Sellars used the phrase in Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind, published in 1956, to attack the idea that raw sense data can justify knowledge all by itself. His point was that knowledge depends on concepts, language, and norms, not just passive receiving of impressions.

Why do philosophers still read Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind?

It is a core text in 20th-century analytic philosophy because it reshaped debates about perception, justification, and mental content. Later philosophers such as Richard Rorty, Robert Brandom, and John McDowell all respond to Sellars in different ways.

Is Sellars an empiricist or an anti-empiricist?

He is not simply anti-empiricist; he rejects a foundationalist version of empiricism based on immediate givens. Sellars still takes science seriously, which is why his famous image contrast between the manifest image and the scientific image matters.

What is the manifest image in Sellars?

The manifest image is the everyday framework in which we understand persons, intentions, colors, reasons, and ordinary objects. Sellars contrasts it with the scientific image, which describes the world through theoretical entities such as atoms, fields, and neurophysiology.