On Sellars’ Attempt to Build a Synoptic Image of the World

In the first part of the paper, I discuss three possible ways to achieve some unity between Sellars’ manifest and scientific image of the world. The plurality of scientific methods that I am advocating is compatible with the fact that all empirical sciences strive for beliefs based on the normative concepts of evidence, explanatory power, and experimental accuracy. Such methods provide different means to reach the common purpose of justification. In the second part of the paper, I criticize Sellars’ definition of the manifest image in terms of a suddenly (!) acquired conceptual framework, thanks to which we are able to evaluate our beliefs by using standards and norms of correctness and appropriateness. Finally, I criticize his antireductionist approach to the problem of the relation between the two images.