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Subseries 2. Educational Material, 1922-1953
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Scope and Content Notes: This subseries documents Sellars' education, principally in philosophy, from his high school years in France and Germany through his graduate education at Oxford and Harvard. The bulk of the material dates from the later 1930s and emphasizes his post secondary education. The files are separated into the following sections: Early Education, Class Papers, Lecture Notes, and Miscellaneous Materials.
The majority of documents found within this subseries have been digitized. Each digital image is represented as a PDF. The entire folder contents are scanned and represented online.
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Section: Early education
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Scope and Content Notes: The files pertaining to Sellars' early education date from 1922-1930 and focus predominately on his time at the Lycee Louis Le Grand in France. These files contain grade sheets, a graded paper and administrative files. One noteworthy document is the "philosophie" notebook, since it may be the earliest existing example of Sellars' philosophical writing. This section also contains administrative materials from a German institution attended briefly by Sellars.
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Box 6
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1 |
Lycee Louis Le Grand general files, 1922-1930
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2 |
Lycee Louis Le Grand notebook on "Philosophie," undated
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3 |
University of Munich material, 1930
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Section: Papers written for courses
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Scope and Content Notes: This section consists of essays written by Sellars during his undergraduate and graduate education. The essays mostly date from Sellars’ time at Oxford and Harvard and are arranged alphabetically by title. The essays are usually handwritten, but in about ten cases there are typed versions available. The topics covered by the essays include the works of Hume and Bradley, ancient Greek philosophy, ethics, psychology, political institutions, and English Law. Of particular interest are the essays on Kant, which cover several related topics and are supplemented by two notebooks. These notebooks contain Sellars’ handwritten notes on writings by and about Kant, which generally consist of direct quotes from the original sources.
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4 |
"Antimony of Pure Reason," undated
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5 |
Bradley, undated
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6 |
Comments on philosophy, undated
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7 |
Cook Wilson, undated
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8 |
Economics of interest, undated
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9 |
English law, undated
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10 |
"Epiphenomenalism and Emergent Materialism," undated
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11 |
"An Examination of the Cogito," c. 1935
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12 |
"The First Analogy," undated
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13 |
"The First Antinomy," undated
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14 |
Greek skepticism, 1953
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15 |
Heraclites and Parmenides, 1953
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16 |
Hume and relations, undated
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17 |
Induction, undated
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18 |
"Introduction to the Philosophy of Schelling," undated
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19 |
"Is the A Priori Analytic?," undated
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20 |
Kant and the antimonies, 1935-1937
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21 |
"Kant," undated
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22 |
"Kant on Space," undated
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23 |
"Kant Papers for H. H. Price Collection," undated
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24-25 |
Kant papers on various topics, undated
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Box 7
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1 |
"Kant's Refutation of Idealism," undated
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2 |
Notes on Kant and substance, undated
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3 |
Notes on Kant, time, direct awareness, undated
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"Let us first ask the question what is it that is true?," undated
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6 |
"Negation," undated
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"A Note on Emergence and Predictability," undated
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8 |
"Objectivity and Subjectivity in Value Theory," undated
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9 |
"Outlines of a Naturalistic Cosmology," undated
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10 |
"Perception," 1931-1932
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11 |
"Political Institutions," 1935
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12 |
Prichard and Cook Wilson, undated
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13 |
"The Problem of Rent," undated
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14 |
Psychology and ethics, undated
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15 |
Santayana and Kant, undated
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16 |
"The Second Analogy is....," undated
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17 |
"Some Comments on Carnap's 'Scheinproblem," undated
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18 |
"Some Comments on the Theory of Political Rights," undated
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19 |
"Some Remarks on the Receptacle," undated
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20 |
"The Sophists," 1933
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21 |
"Universals," undated
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22 |
"Utility, Value & Welfare," undated
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Section: Course lecture notes
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Scope and Content Notes: The lecture notes are handwritten notes taken by Sellars during his post-secondary education. They are filed alphabetically by lecturer and consist of both loose sheets and bound notebooks. The lecture notes are usually labeled with the lecturer’s name and the topic of the course but in a few instances the lecturer is unknown. The notebooks may have one series of notes starting from the front of the notebook, and a second series starting from the back of the notebook, with the rear-forward handwriting inverted. Both types of notes may include reading lists for the course. In a few cases, there are typed, word-for-word transcriptions of the handwritten notes. Topics include the works of Hume, Lewis, Plato, Spinoza, and Wittgenstein, as well as logic, epistemology, and ethics. In addition to the lecture notes taken by Sellars, this section also contains two typed versions of notes created by Wittgenstein’s students in the 1930s.
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23 |
"Austin - Leibnitz," undated
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24 |
"(Buffalo Notebook?)," 1933
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25 |
Carritt - Dialectical Materialism, undated
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26 |
"Demos-Plato/Huntington Math," undated
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27 |
"Deductive Science of Ethics," undated
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28 |
"Huntington - Postulate Theory," undated
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29 |
'Kneale Political Philosophy," undated
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Box 8
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Lewis - Hume and Parmenides, undated
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Lewis - Epistemology, undated
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Lewis - Logic, undated
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"Lewis - Theory Knowledge," undated
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"Mure-Hegel," undated
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6 |
"H.H. Price - Problems in the Theory of Knowledge," Undated
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7 |
"Pritchard Lectures on Berkeley's Theory of Knowledge" Trinity Term '35, 1935
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8 |
"Pritchard - Ethics," undated
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9 |
"Pritchard - The Nature of Moral Obligation," undated
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10 |
"Quine - Logical Positivism," Undated
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Box 9
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1 |
Ross - Unlabeled, undated
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Ross - Kant's moral theory and ethics, undated
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Ross - Mr. Ryle - Induction and probability, 1936
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Ross - Smith - Kant, undated
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Ross - Stevenson - Hume, 1938
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Unknown - Economics tutorial, undated
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Unknown - International relations, undated
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Unknown - Isaiah Berlin reading notes, undated
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Unknown - Logical positivism, undated
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10 |
Unknown - Political history, undated
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11 |
Unknown - Spinoza, Wittgenstein, Plato, Logic, undated
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12-13 |
Unknown - Wittgenstein Dictations, 1934-1937 1934-1937
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Section: Miscellaneous
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Scope and Content Notes: This section contains correspondence written to Sellars in regards to his education at Oxford. Primarily, this correspondence is comprised of brief notes of congratulations sent to Sellars for passing exams. There are also several letters of recommendation Sellars received from members of the Oriel College faculty. Researchers may also be interested in Sellars’s correspondence with his first wife Gertrude Mary Sharp, which is located in the personal correspondence section and discusses his education and their developing relationship. In addition to correspondence, this section also contains examination booklets and exams. The majority of these files contain exam questions. However, two of the Oxford files contain Sellars’s handwritten answers to examinations. Sellars’s GRE scores are also located here. The remaining files document some of Sellars non-professional activities and interests while in graduate school. More specifically, it includes receipts from the doctor and bookstore, artifacts from the Jowett Society, the Oriel College Boat Club, and administrative documents dating from Sellars’s time at Oxford and Harvard.
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Box 10
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Address book and checkbook, 1934-1937
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2 |
Bookstore receipts, doctor's bills 1936-1938
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03-05 |
Correspondence, 1935-1956
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6 |
Exams - GRE scores, undated
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Exams - Oxford PPE bibliography, 1935
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8 |
Exams - Oxford PPE questions, 1931-1936
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9 |
Exams - Oxford answers on general PPE, undated
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10 |
Exams - Oxford answers on logic, undated
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11 |
Exams - Harvard Ph.D. questions, 1925-1938
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12 |
Exams - University of Buffalo questions, 1934-1939
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13 |
Jowett Society, 1936-1937
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14-15 |
Miscellaneous memorabilia, 1933-1940
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16 |
Oxford administrative and financial documents, 1934-1940
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