Reading Kant with Sellars: Reconceiving Kantian Themes

This book considers Wilfrid Sellars’ engagement with Kantian philosophy―both theoretical and practical―in his exegetical work in reading Kant as well as in his own systematic development of Kantian philosophy.

Despite the spate of new publications on Wilfrid Sellars’ role in 20th-century philosophy, a comprehensive book-length examination of his interpretation of Kant has been conspicuously absent. This volume fills that gap both exegetically and systematically, exploring his engagement in four distinct sections: (1) Logic and History; (2) Sensations and Intuitions; (3) Being and Categories; and (4) Reason, Modality, and Freedom. The chapters within these sections, written by leading experts, explore Sellars’ reading of Kant and offer both defenses and critiques. Readers will find in this collection not only a thorough exploration of Sellars’ engagement with Kant, but also a rich dialogue between Kant scholars and specialists in Sellars’ philosophy.

Reading Kant with Sellars is essential reading for Kant and Sellars scholars, offering them deeper insights into their respective fields by highlighting the importance of Kant for Sellars and the relevance of Sellars’ reading of Kant for Kant scholarship. It will also appeal to scholars and advanced students in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, epistemology, moral and practical philosophy, and logic.

Chapter 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. The funder for this chapter is Digitales Kant-Zentrum NRW (Kant and Cognitive Science), funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Mahdi Ranaee is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Siegen, Germany. He specializes in Kant, history of analytic philosophy, Islamic philosophy, and epistemology. He is co-editor of Fraught with Ought: Selected Writings of Wilfrid Sellars (forthcoming) and his articles include “Non-Accidentally Factive Mental States” (Dialogue).

Luz Christopher Seiberth is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Potsdam, Germany and specializes in Kant. A symposium to his monograph Intentionality in Sellars (Routledge 2022) appeared in International Journal of Philosophical Studies (2022, 30/5). He is co-editor of Fraught with Ought: Selected Writings of Wilfrid Sellars (forthcoming).