"The aim of philosophy, abstractly formulated, is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term. Under 'things in the broadest possible sense' I include such radically different items as not only 'cabbages and kings,' but numbers and duties, possibilities and finger snaps, aesthetic experience and death. To achieve success in philosophy would be, to use a contemporary turn of phrase, to 'know one's way around' with respect to all these things, not in that unreflective way in which the centipede of the story knew its way around before it faced the question, 'how do I walk?', but in that reflective way which means that no intellectual holds are barred." (Wilfrid Sellars, 'Philosophy and the scientific image of man,' 1962)
Lecturer in Philosophy Te Kura Aronui | School of Social Sciences Te Wānanga o Ngā Kete | Division of Arts, Law, Psychology and Social Sciences Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato | The University of Waikato
wyattjww[at]gmail[dot]com
Philosophy Programme School of Social Sciences The University of Waikato Private Bag 3105 Hamilton, New Zealand 3240 +64 7 838 4030
Photo credits: Filippo Ferrari, Oh Mikyung
