Wilfrid Sellars

Wilfrid Sellars
Born	Wilfrid Stalker Sellars (1912-05-20)May 20, 1912 Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
Died	July 2, 1989(1989-07-02) (aged 77) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Education
Education	University of Michigan (B.A., 1933) University at Buffalo (M.A., 1934)[1] Oriel College, Oxford (B.A., 1936; MA, 1940)
Academic advisors	Marvin Farber[4] Thomas Dewar Weldon
Philosophical work
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic Pittsburgh School Process philosophy[2] Critical realism (philosophy of perception) Anti-foundationalism[3]
Institutions	University of Pittsburgh
Doctoral students	Jay Rosenberg György Márkus Paul Churchland Robert Kane Christopher Gauker Héctor-Neri Castañeda Richard Creath
Notable students	Fred Dretske
Main interests	Philosophy of mind Philosophy of perception Epistemology Meaning Pragmatism Behaviorism History of philosophy Expressivism
Notable ideas	Critical realism (philosophy of perception) Criticism of foundationalist epistemology (the "Myth of the Given") Psychological nominalism Kantian empiricism[1] The distinction between the 'manifest' and the 'scientific' image Logical space of reasons (the realm of the semantic)[1] Sellarsian dilemma for foundationalism[6] Synoptic vision[7][8] Rylean myth[9]

Wilfrid Stalker Sellars (/ˈsɛlərz/; May 20, 1912 – July 2, 1989) was an American philosopher and prominent developer of critical realism^[10] who "revolutionized both the content and the method of philosophy in the United States".^[11] His work has had a profound impact in virtually all areas of analytic philosophy beginning in the latter half of the 20th century, including in epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of perception, and philosophy of science. His most notable contributions include his critique of foundationalist epistemology (the "Myth of the Given"), a synoptic philosophy aiming to unite what he called the manifest and scientific images, and an inferentialist account of meaning.