Wilfrid Sellars and Phenomenology: Intersections, Encounters, Oppositions

Wilfrid Sellars tackled the difficult problems of reconciling Pittsburgh school-style analytic thought, Husserlian phenomenology, and the Myth of the Given.

This collection of essays brings into dialogue the analytic philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars--founder of the Pittsburgh school of thought--and phenomenology, with a special focus on the work of Edmund Husserl. The book's wide-ranging discussions include the famous Myth of the Given but also more traditional problems in the philosophy of mind and phenomenology such as the

• status of perception and imagination
• nature of intentionality
• concept of motivation
• relationship between linguistic and nonlinguistic experiences
• relationship between conceptual and preconceptual experiences

Moreover, the volume addresses the conflicts between Sellars's manifest and scientific images of the world and Husserl's ontology of the life-world. The volume takes as a point of departure Sellars's criticism of the Myth of the Given, but only to show the many problems that label obscures. Contributors explain aspects of Sellars's philosophy vis--vis Husserl's phenomenology, articulating the central problems and solutions of each. The book is a must-read for scholars and students interested in learning more about Sellars and for those comparing Continental and analytic philosophical thought.

Contributors