Sellars, Wilfrid

"To think is to occupy a position within an inferential web of concepts."

"Understanding science requires understanding the conceptual innovations it introduces."

"Normativity is not imposed from without but emerges from rational practice."

"The empiricist dream of a pure observation language is incoherent."

"We are the creatures we are because we can justify our actions to ourselves and others."

"Meaning is not intrinsic to signs but arises from their role in a language game."

"The authority of science lies not in its method but in its responsiveness to reasons."

"Particulars only become intelligible through their relation to universals."

"The dualism of appearance and reality reflects a failure to understand conceptual activity."

"To speak is to commit oneself to a web of rational relationships."

"Sensation itself is structured by the conceptual schemes we bring to it."

"The space of thoughts is the same as the space of possible sentences."

"Rational agents are not passive recipients of impressions but active conceptualizers."

"Science progresses not by accumulating facts but by refining its conceptual frameworks."

"The intelligibility of something lies in its place within a rational order."

"We cannot step outside language to compare our concepts with reality."

"The community of rational agents is constituted by the practice of giving reasons."

"Objectivity is not independence from conceptual schemes but coherence within them."

"To understand is to grasp the normative structure of a practice."

"The problem of induction reflects a misunderstanding of the nature of explanation."

"Our categories are tools for engaging with the world, not mirrors of its structure."

"Intentionality requires a subject who is already embedded in a language community."

"The foundations of knowledge are not sense impressions but conceptual practices."

"We are rational because we can be responsive to the space of reasons."

"The uniformity of nature is not a metaphysical principle but a feature of our conceptual scheme."

"Thought is always already socialized; there is no private language."

"Understanding another person requires understanding the conceptual framework they inhabit."

"Facts are not atomic but embedded in networks of significance."

"The self is constituted through its participation in rational discourse."

"Science is continuous with everyday rational activity, not fundamentally different from it."