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by: Wilfrid Sellars, Richard Rorty
Amazon.com's Price: $51.50 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 128.2
EAN: 9780674251540
ISBN: 0674251547
Label: Harvard University Press
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: July 01, 1997
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Sales Rank: 622607
Studio: Harvard University Press
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Product Description:
The most important work by one of America's greatest twentieth-century philosophers, Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind is both the epitome of Wilfrid Sellars' entire philosophical system and a key document in the history of philosophy. First published in essay form in 1956, it helped bring about a sea change in analytic philosophy. It broke the link, which had bound Russell and Ayer to Locke and Hume--the doctrine of 'knowledge by acquaintance.' Sellars' attack on the Myth of the Given in Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind was a decisive move in turning analytic philosophy away from the foundationalist motives of the logical empiricists and raised doubts about the very idea of 'epistemology.'
With an introduction by Richard Rorty to situate the work within the history of recent philosophy, and with a study guide by Robert Brandom, this publication of Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind makes a difficult but indisputably significant figure in the development of analytic philosophy clear and comprehensible to anyone who would understand that philosophy or its history.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Brilliant and rewarding
I have come back to this essay by Sellars again and again for over thirty years, and have never failed to impressed and inspired. Sellars can always get me to think at a deeper level than I'm used to. Second only perhaps to Wittgenstein in influence, Sellars is a philosopher's philosopher: understanding him requires a thorough grounding in the history of philosophy, and this essay in particular takes it for granted that you understand 20th century empricism and "sense data" theories pretty well. ... Read More
Rating:  - Cave!
I do not understand why it is always said that Sellars' language was so difficult. I found his philosophical style quite straight-on. Unfortunately, Sellars' main work is punctuated by some passages of superficial and/or incorrect reasoning, at which passages some may assume that they do not understand Sellars' argumentation - though it "has to be profound" (because of Sellars' reputation). The most important issue in this essay is the impossibility of reporting sense impressions without using ... Read More
Rating: - deep, difficult, essential
"Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind" is an essential epistemological text of the twentieth century. It is difficult: each sentence is difficult. Sellars is said to have shown the existence of a private language by writing in one. The guide by Brandom does not much clarify and simplify the argument of Sellars for two reasons. It is impossible to do this. And Brandom wants to and does contribute significantly to Sellars scholarship. Sellars writes for the professional philosopher. If you plan to be such, ... Read More
Rating:  - A difficult, controversial work in philosophy
There are two areas to comment on with regards to this printing of "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind" (EPM). The first is the presentation style and the second is the content. On the presentation: Rorty's introduction is very helpful in preparing one to read the book. The large print will be a welcome relief to anyone who has squinted at the pages of *Science, Perception and Reality* which also includes EPM. However, the omission of the footnotes Sellars added in 1963 is very odd. Also, the endnote ... Read More
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