We will study the work of three giants of mid and late-Twentieth
Century Analytic Philosophy — Sellars, Quine, and Davidson — with
particular focus on issues in epistemology, the philosophy of mind,
and (to a lesser extent) the philosophy of language.  Despite their
deep differences, each of these three thinkers helped initiate
various aspects of a broad movement in mid to late Analytic
Philosophy:  the revolt against a package of ideas in epistemology
and the philosophy of mind which could be called “Cartesian” (though
its relation to Descartes’ actual views is a complicated question).
Sellars is particularly concerned with the nature of sensory
experience and its role in our thought and knowledge about the
world; adopting Kant’s dictum that “intuitions without concepts are
blind,” he aims, as he puts it, to usher analytic philosophy from
its Humean phase into its Kantian phase.  Quine develops a thorough-
going naturalism in the wake of what he saw as the failures of
Logical Positivism; rather than providing a standpoint prior to or
independent of the sciences, philosophy – including epistemology –
is to be seen as another chapter in our attempt to develop an
empirically adequate theory of the world.  And Davidson, focusing on
the notion of meaning, develops a conception of the mind and its
relation to the world which radically reconceives the relation
between the “internal” and the “external”, the subjective and the
objective.  On his view, what’s “in the mind” constitutively depends
upon one’s placement in the natural and social world.  Surprising
and deep epistemological results follow, or so he claims.

Despite the fact that all three philosophers are now dead, the
course won't be purely historical.  Many of the topics we will be
looking at have been central in the past 10 or 15 years, especially
Sellars' attack on the "Myth of the Given", Quine's attack on
analyticity and the a priori, Davidson’s approach to the mental, and
the relation between thought and language.  So my plan is to run the
seminar on dual tracks.  Each week we will do a careful reading of
one or more seminal texts from one of these three thinkers and then
confront it with an important recent elaboration or response.  Some
of the more recent writings will be from:  Stroud, Kim, Boghossian,
McDowell, Brandom, Ricketts, Pryor, Putnam, and Bonjour (among
others).  We'll also have some background reading from C.I. Lewis
and Carnap, among others.  Here are some of the themes and issues we
will be tracing through the readings:  perceptual justification,
foundationalism and its alternatives, the "Myth of the Given",
naturalism, “Cartesianism” about the mind, a priori justification,
meaning, analyticity, the content of empirical beliefs (and how they
get their content), whether it is possible to get a fully "external"
approach to our epistemological lives, the nature of mentalistic
explanations, holism about the mental. The overall goal of the
course could be put this way: to help students appreciate some of
the projects and perspectives which have helped shape much of the
current discussion in analytic philosophy, and to investigate the
extent to which those projects and perspectives might still have
value.

Course requirements:  The class will be conducted as a seminar, with
emphasis upon discussion.  Students will be asked to lead at least
one (and perhaps two) discussions.  Each student will have the
option of writing three short (6 – 8 page) papers (due at regular
intervals) or one long (+/- 20 page) seminar paper (due at the end
of the semester).