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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new Academic Year means time to update the old homepage. The conference in Prague on the Normativity of Meaning was a wonderful affair: Lots of good papers, a chance to see old friends and meet new ones, a first-rate venue, and a lovely city. After that, talks in Zurich, Potsdam, and Halle, all very enjoyable, especially because the cities were new to me. I had some down time this summer, recovering from surgery, but I feel fit for the new AY, when I'll be vice-chair of the Faculty Senate, in addition to my teaching and research responsibilities.

What's new:

My article on Sellars has now replaced Jay Rosenberg's in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Jay's will continue to be available in the archive, but SEP wants its authors alive and revising.

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!) I have published a critical overview of Wilfrid Sellars's philosophy, out from Acumen Publishing/McGill-Queen's University Press. More recently, there is Empiricism, Perceptual Knowledge, Normativity, and Realism:
Essays on Wilfrid Sellars Available now through all good bookshops, or direct from Oxford 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