Wilfred Sellar's Synoptic Vision: Examining the Scientific & Manifest Images - Essay Sample

Introduction

Wilfred Stalker Sellar, an American philosopher, and realist, distinguished between the scientific image and the manifest image of the world. The manifest image focuses on a person's basic intentions, physical appearance, and inner thoughts. They are what the normal mind perceives in the accumulation of daily life. The scientific image centers around theoretical social sciences focusing on casualty, genes, and human biochemistry. This essay discusses Sellar's synoptic vision and the scientific image of man.

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The scientific(postulated) image theory is a combination of various existing sciences. Philosophers try to explain the conception of a man using theoretical psychology, but Sellars (1962) introduced the idea of seeing man as a summation of two images to be seen in a stereoscopic type of view. The theory is dependent on accumulated common sense in the world as it can not stand alone and must be proved by other sciences and the manifest image theory. It is an entity that is mostly a summation of biochemistry, physiology, and behaviorism. To the physicist, man is a combination of forces and fields. In welding the biochemistry and physiology image of a man, it must be associated with complex biochemical structures. Behaviorism focuses on paying attention to what someone is expressing about themselves indirectly from their actions and statements. Philosophy advocates to knowing one's way around before knowing how to walk as a means of theoretical postulation. All this mold the idea of scientific image where we know the "how to" part but fail in initial reasoning of inner understanding.

The scientific theory nurtures a new framework in explaining the world's oddities and developments. It presents itself as a rival to the manifest theory as manifest objects seem relatively real, while scientific objects account for the prediction and management of manifest objects. Sellars advocates for a third alternative through his synoptic vision where the description offered by the scientific image are united with the social ambiance of the community. He proclaims that science is the measure in which the world can be described, but the manifest theory is how humans see themselves and the world in their minds. This works for every individual, but a summation of these supported by other postulated theories amounts to the actual physical world.

Sellars expressed that the general progress of humanity needed man to see themselves in the scientific image willingly. People need to view themselves as responsible beings whose choices (many alternatives leading to different outcomes) have impacts limited to the physical law of nature (Sellarss, 1962). This form of reconstruction would allow people to see life logically based on the many postulated associating theories than just following our inner manifestations. We think of others around us as sharing our intentions creating this accepted illusion in which we live our lives. This idea is not to be disposed of but merged with the scientific image to allow human beings the comfort of understanding the physical world and how it assists us in producing our manifestations. We do so in our minds and express it transcending the duplexity of the manifest and scientific image of man.

Reference

Sellars W. (1962) Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man. Frontiers of Science and Philosophy, edited by Robert Colodny (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburgh Press): 35-78. Reprinted in Science, Perception and Reality (1963).