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: An article on "Sense-Certainty and the 'This-Such'" is now out in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit: A Critical Guide, which is in a new series of critical guides from Cambridge University Press. That's the first thing I've published on Hegel in 15 years, but it won't be the last. Also, the proceedings of the 2006 London Conference on EPM are at the publisher now and I hope that will move along the process quickly. I'm currently working on a paper on "Teleology, Intentionality, and Practical Reason" for the December 08 APA and developing plans for a work on science and reality to occupy the sabbatical I have coming up. Oh yeah, I'm chairing the Department this year.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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