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.

Preface ixAcknowledgements xiiIntroduction 11 The Philosophical Quest and the Clash of the Images10The quest for a stereoscopic fusion of the manifest andscientific images 10The clash of the images and the status of the sensible qualities14Sensing, thinking, and willing: persons as complex physicalsystems? 172 Scientific Realism and the Scientific Image 23Empiricist approaches to the interpretation of scientifictheories 24Sellars' critique of empiricism and his defense ofscientific realism 32The ontological primacy of the scientific image 413 Meaning and Abstract Entities 48Approaching thought through language: is meaning a relation?49Sellars' alternative functional role conception of meaning55The problem of abstract entities: introducing Sellars'nominalism 63Abstract entities: problems and prospects for the metalinguisticaccount 694 Thought, Language, and the Myth of Genius Jones 77Meaning and pattern-governed linguistic behavior 77Bedrock uniformity and rule-following normativity in the spaceof meanings 83Our Rylean ancestors and genius Jones's theory of innerthoughts 86Privileged access and other issues in Sellers' account ofthinking 975 Knowledge, Immediate Experience, and the Myth of the Given106The idea of the given and the case of sense-datum theories107Toward Sellers' account of perception and appearance118Epistemic principles and the holistic structure of our knowledge125Genius Jones, Act Two: the intrinsic character of our sensoryexperiences 1366 Truth, Picturing, and Ultimate Ontology 143Truth as semantic assertibility and truth as correspondence144Picturing, linguistic representation, and reference 147Truth, conceptual change, and the ideal scientific image 158The ontology of sensory consciousness and absolute processes1637 A Synoptic Vision: Sellers' Naturalism with aNormative Turn 176The structure of Sellers' normative 'Copernicanrevolution' 176Intentions, volitions, and the moral point of view 178Persons in the synoptic vision 185Notes 191Bibliography 228Index 243