The shape of a good question: McDowell, evolution, and transcendental philosophy

Philosophical Forum 42 (1):61-78 (2011)
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Abstract

I examine John McDowell's attitude towards naturalism in general, and evolutionary theory in particular, by distinguishing between "transcendental descriptions" and "empirical explanations". With this distinction in view we can understand why McDowell holds that there is both continuity and discontinuity between humans qua rational animals and other animals -- there is continuity with regards to empirical explanations and discontinuity with regards to transcendental descriptions. The result of this examination is a clearer assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of McDowell's contribution to philosophical naturalism.

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10.1111/j.1467-9191.2011.00378.x

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Carl Sachs
Marymount University

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Between Causes and Reasons: Sellars, Hegel (and Lewis) on “Sensation”.Luca Corti - 2019 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 27 (3):422-447.
The notion of sensation in Sellars' theory of perception.Luca Corti - 2021 - European Journal of Philosophy 29 (4):1079-1099.
Causality in the McDowellian World.Alan Charles McKay - 2014 - Dissertation, Queen's University Belfast

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References found in this work

Empiricism and the philosophy of mind.Wilfrid Sellars - 1956 - Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 1:253-329.
Philosophy and the scientific image of man.Wilfrid S. Sellars - 1963 - In Robert Colodny, Science, Perception, and Reality. Humanities Press/Ridgeview. pp. 35-78.
What myth?John McDowell - 2007 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 50 (4):338 – 351.
5 Naturalism in the Philosophy of Mind.John Mcdowell - 2004 - In Mario De Caro & David Macarthur, Naturalism in Question. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. pp. 91-105.

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