Sellars, Wilfrid

"The myth of the given is the idea that there is a structure of consciousness that requires no justification or explanation. This is precisely what I deny."

"Language is the measure of thought. To improve one's language is to improve one's capacity for rational reflection."

"The conceptual framework we use to describe the world shapes what we can know about it."

"Empiricism without rationalism is blind; rationalism without empiricism is empty."

"To be is to be in the space of reasons, to be subject to justification and rationality."

"The manifest image and the scientific image must be integrated, not set in opposition."

"All authentic knowledge has the form of universality and necessity."

"The given cannot be made a foundation for knowledge without circularity."

"Categories are not created by the mind but discovered in the structure of reality."

"Meaning is not a property of words in isolation but emerges in the use of language."

"The relationship between mind and world is mediated entirely through conceptual frameworks."

"Science aims at a complete and unified description of all facts."

"Intentionality is the mark of the mental; it is aboutness."

"We cannot step outside language to check if our concepts match reality."

"The logical structure of the world is reflected in the structure of language."

"Aristotle was wrong about substance; it is not a fundamental category."

"Knowledge is not a mental state but a normative status in the space of reasons."

"Philosophy without phenomenology is abstract; phenomenology without philosophy is blind."

"The given presents itself to us, but its character is determined by our concepts."

"All knowledge involves a perspective; absolute objectivity is impossible and incoherent."

"The private language argument shows that meaning requires community."

"Freedom is not the absence of causation but alignment with rational necessity."

"Every fact is a fact-in-a-framework; facts are not absolutely given."

"The myth of the given tempts us, but it must be resisted."

"Concepts are tools formaking sense of experience, not mirrors of reality."

"Rationality is the ability to respond to reasons, to move in the space of reasons."

"Language is not a veil between mind and world; it is our access to the world."

"The rules of logic are not laws of thought but norms we ought to follow."

"Scientific realism requires abandoning the idea of the given."

"Truth is a matter of how our concepts carve nature at its joints."