James OShea - Wilfrid Sellars: Naturalism with a Normative Turn

Dedicated to Karina

Copyright James R. O'Shea 2007

The right of James R. O'Shea to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2007 by Polity Press

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Two decades after his death Wilfrid Sellars has once again become a much discussed philosopher on the contemporary analytic philosophical scene. Accordingly there is no apology needed for the present attempt to lay out clearly and to evaluate his overall views, especially since his writings present quite a challenge for the reader who is not already acquainted with his work. I have attempted to make Sellars' arguments accessible to upper undergraduate students in philosophy. Given the complexity of Sellars' views, however, I am reminded of the late Peter Strawson's remark in the Preface to his book Analysis and Metaphysics: An Introduction to Philosophy: The book, then, may fairly be described as introductory. But though it is introductory, it is not elementary. There is no such thing as elementary philosophy. There is no shallow end to the philosophical pool (Strawson 1992: vii). I have put a premium on attempting to produce a readable, gradually developing, and interconnected Sellarsian story, while also noting the main points at which Sellars' views are open to criticism. Given this purpose I have not been able to engage in extensive or detailed examination of the secondary literature, although the reader will find appropriate orientation in relation to those debates as well.

I can warmly recommend to the interested reader another introductory book on Sellars that has recently appeared: Willem A. deVries' Wilfrid Sellars (2005). Those who know deVries' work know that he is a sure hand in relation to the interpretation of Sellars. The reader will find differences of substance and style between our two books, but mostly, I believe, in a manner which renders them usefully complementary guides to Sellars' philosophy. Although I completed a full draft of the present manuscript before consulting deVries' book, throughout the process I have benefited from our email exchanges and from his encouragement of the present work, for which I thank him.

For bibliographical information, secondary sources, and other useful material, all students of Sellars are indebted to the Problems from Wilfrid Sellars website maintained by Andrew Chrucky (http://www.ditext.com/sellars/index.html). Among the most useful items on that website is Jay F. Rosenberg's (1990) Nachruf for Sellars, Fusing the Images (also available in Rosenberg forthcoming), an excellent brief overview of Sellars' philosophy. Another very useful secondary source on Sellars is Delaney et al. (1977), listed in the bibliography. Aune (1967) is also still well worth a look for clear Sellars-inspired investigations of a wide range of topics. Finally, a wealth of primary sources relating to Sellars is currently being made available by the helpful people at the Sellars Archive in the University of Pittsburgh Archives of Scientific Philosophy.