Sellars’s Myth of the Given and the Buddhist Problem of the Inexpressible: A Comparative Philosophical Examination

Key Points

• The paper explores the intersection between Sellars’s critique of nonconceptual experience and Buddhist notions of the inexpressible.
• Comparative philosophical analysis of Sellars’s Myth of the Given and Buddhist texts.
• Reinterpretation of Dharmakirti's svasaṃvedana in the context of normative ontology.
• Review of contemporary debates on nonconceptual perception and their implications for epistemology.
• Sellars's argument is structurally similar to Dharmakirti's theories while differing in argumentative layers.
• The concept of inexpressibility in Buddhism serves as a mediating thought between different interpretations of understanding.
• The analysis presents a unique framework addressing asymmetry in argumentative layers and structural representations in modern debates.