[MD] Apologies for Dropped Threads

[John Carl]

Matt,

No apology necessary.  I found you entirely gracious and accomodating when
you stated plainly that you didn't have the time at your disposal to delve
deeply into my response.

I also appreciate your scholarly background in illuminating the Sellar's
relationships.  That's a fascinating idea to me, all on its own. How many
father-son philosophers have there been throughout history?  What does it
look like when a son absorbs philosophy from birth, practically, and how
these intellectual patterns evolve over generations?  That would be a
fascinating study indeed.  For in fact, since we have a model for different
levels at our disposal, the way these intellectual patterns are influenced
by the social and biological relationships raises a lot of questions in my
mind.

And if you ever get a chance, I think you'd like this book I'm reading.
Ryan takes on many of the issues we discuss around here and it's been a good
primer for me.  It's also a worthy example of something I'd deem "the new
scholarship", in that a lot of it's genesis was from internet discussions,
and most of its footnotes are URLs - thus giving us plebians immediate
access to an entire research library behind the thesis.


> And finally I apologize to John for not being able to talk to him
> about the relationship between Wilfrid Sellars (my Sellars) and his
> father, Roy Wood Sellars (his Sellars).  He is right to think that
> there's something close about what he read and what I've been
> saying about psychological nominalism.  From what I read of what
> John provided, dad's "ontological nominalism" is very close, and
> we can only imagine shaped the later Sellars' version.  If I'm not
> mistaken, however, Roy Wood identified as a realist, and at that
> time it meant that he was in opposition to idealism (which most
> realists included pragmatism in, rightly or wrongly).



Yes, you do have it right.  And Ryan's treatise is dedicated to Josiah Royce
and Brand Blanshard so that's where he's coming from.  And you can see where
my attraction to him stems from.

Thanks again for your time and sharing your scholarship, Matt.

John