Willem A. deVries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.
                                                            -Wilfrid Sellars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Research Interests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's new:

Empiricism, Perceptual Knowledge, Normativity, and Realism
Essays on Wilfrid Sellars
Available now through all good bookshops, or direct from Oxford University Press at:
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199573301

I have been on sabbatical this fall, mostly trying to catch up with the reading that is so hard to squeeze in while teaching. I am particularly interested in the place of teleology in the Manifest Image, which I increasingly think has been badly misunderstood since the rise of the New Sciences. I've also had some fun reading a paper on Sellars and McDowell on Sensory Consciousness at various venues, which I have now shipped off in the hopes of publication.

My research interests are pretty broad, covering most metaphysics and epistemology, as well as the history of philosophy.  I have been particularly interested in the Philosophy of Mind and German Idealism.  I've got a book on Hegel's Theory of Mental Activity (available for download at this site) and a (defunct) textbook, Reality, Knowledge, and the Good Life.  A collaboration with my colleague Timm Triplett, Knowledge, Mind, and the Given: Reading Wilfrid Sellars's "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind," came out from Hackett Publishing in 2000. (We're also working on a set of dialogues debating Sellars's success, but that's going pretty slowly. Some of the dialogues are starting to show up in print, though!) My most recent book is a critical overview of Wilfrid Sellars's philosophy, out from Acumen Publishing/McGill-Queen's University Press. But still more recently, there is the editorial effort referred to above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Personally

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do Philosophy because I enjoy it, so it's also a personal interest of mine.  Teaching is a worthy, indeed, an honorable profession, and I try to do the best I can to help my students taste the life of the mind.  I'm active in my community: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

school building committees, soccer coach and referree, school technology committee, and increasing involvement with politics..
I also like to cook, wind surf, and do other nongeeky things on occasion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

willem.devries@unh.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lachende Alte,  Ernst Barlach

 

 

The Philosophy Department

 

 

 

Hamilton Smith Hall 44

 

 

University of New Hampshire

 

 

 

Durham, NH  03824

 

 

Phone: (603) 862-3077

 

 

 

Fax: (603) 862-4214