From the Publisher
“Peter Olen’s unmatched historical analysis of hitherto unnoticed changes in the development of Wilfrid Sellars’ thought probes deeply into what is perhaps the most hotly disputed of modern philosophical ambitions: namely, to explain our own rational nature scientifically, or ‘naturalistically’, but without thereby explaining away those normative ‘ought’s that arguably make us the reasoning and evaluative beings that we are.” (James R. O’Shea, University College Dublin (UCD))
“Recently, much attention has been paid to the work of Wilfrid Sellars - one of the most important systematic philosophers of the 20th century. ... Drawing on extensive archival research, and fleshing out the intellectual context of Sellars's early work, Pete Olen demonstrates several crucial ways that Sellars's thought changed and developed from his early "pure pragmatics" period to his less formalistic, and much more famous, work in the 50s and 60s. Olen's study will be valuable both for historians of 20th century philosophy and for those interested in any of the contemporary Sellarsian or post-Sellarsian approaches to philosophical issues ... .” (Mark Lance, Georgetown University, USA)
“This is a very good book on the work of Wilfrid Sellars. Some of us who are sympathetic with Sellars’ views think we can use his early work to elucidate and support views in his later work. By carefully reconstructing the philosophical context of Sellars’ earliest essays, Olen explains why doing so is risky, showing that we should take care not to treat Sellars’ work as a single, consistent corpus, but one that is fragmented, inconsistent, and grew over time. That is a fitting observation, given that Sellars often stressed the diachronic and corrective character of knowledge and philosophy.” (Chauncey Maher, Dickinson College, USA)
