Wilfrid Sellars’ critique of sense data theories
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20873/rpv11n1-52Keywords:
Wilfrid Sellars, sense-datum theory, epistemology, justification, foundationalismAbstract
Sellars criticized the sense-datum theory as a form of 'the Myth of the Given' in the first and second parts of his article 'Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind'. In the present article, only his criticisms in the first part have been examined. He presented two critiques of sense data theory. At the end, I have concluded that both of his criticisms contain multiple flaws. He overlooked one possible logical alternative, misinterpreted Russell's 'knowledge by acquaintance', categorized sense-datum theory under the Myth of the Given, and erroneously presumed that this theory must endorse all six propositions he listed and that sense contents cannot justify beliefs without implicating them. His objections ultimately lack the force he claims.
References
BONEVAC, Daniel. (2002). Sellars vs. the Given. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 64(1), 1-30.
DEVRIES, Willem A.; & TRIPLETT, Timm. (2000). Knowledge, mind, and the given: reading Wilfrid Sellars’s “Empiricism and the philosophy of mind,” including the complete text of Sellars’s essay. Hackett Pub.
FISH, William. (2010). Philosophy of perception: a contemporary introduction. Routledge.
HUMERr, Michael, "Sense Data", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/sense-data/
SELLARS, Wilfrid; RORTY, Richard; & BRANDOM, Robert. (1997). Empiricism and the philosophy of mind. Harvard University Press.
TRIPLETT, Timm. (2014). Sellars’s misconstrual of the Defenders of the Given. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 31(1), 79-99.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 shayan hamraz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The Magazine is under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC BY 4.0), according to which:
1) The authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution which allows the sharing of articles published with the recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2) Authors are authorized to enter into additional contracts separately for distribution of the version of the work published in this journal, as long as there is recognition of authorship and initial publication in Perspectivas.
3) Authors are authorized and encouraged to disseminate published texts with proper references to the journal and its authors.
