Usually scholars regard the philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars as opposed to a phenomenological oriented approach, and many of his arguments are considered critical towards key phenomenological concepts, such as ‘giveness’ and ‘intuition’. Furthermore, proper attention is not paid to his relation to the phenomenological tradition. In the present work this image is discussed and put in a different perspective by focusing on Sellars’ reception of phenomenology. Firstly, the paper reconstructs how pheno…
Read moreUsually scholars regard the philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars as opposed to a phenomenological oriented approach, and many of his arguments are considered critical towards key phenomenological concepts, such as ‘giveness’ and ‘intuition’. Furthermore, proper attention is not paid to his relation to the phenomenological tradition. In the present work this image is discussed and put in a different perspective by focusing on Sellars’ reception of phenomenology. Firstly, the paper reconstructs how phenomenology was received by Sellars through a complex net of mediations, with particular attention paid to Marvin Farber’s project of a naturalized phenomenology. Then, by focusing on those works where the name of Husserl is more present, it is argued that Sellars does make use of a phenomenological stile of speculation, while also distancing himself from a certain conception of phenomenology that he deemed incompatible with his own philosophical project.
