Final answer:
The tension between Sellars' scientific and manifest images stems from their contrasting views of reality: the manifest image is based on direct human experience and the scientific image on abstract, theoretical concepts of the natural sciences. Philosophy seeks to reconcile these two to achieve a complete understanding of reality.
Step-by-step explanation:
The apparent tension between what Sellars calls the scientific image and the manifest image arises because they represent fundamentally different conceptions of reality and our place within it. The manifest image refers to the world as humans directly experience it, inclusive of social institutions, moral values, and mental states. In contrast, the scientific image describes a world of theoretical entities and relations, characterized by the rigorous, often mathematical frameworks of the natural sciences.
This tension is significant because it touches on how humans understand themselves and their world. The scientific image can seem to undermine the manifest image by depicting persons not as moral agents, but as complex physical systems. One primary goal of philosophy, as Sellars sees it, is to reconcile these two images by understanding how they can coexist and inform one another, thus giving us a more comprehensive worldview.
How the Images Differ and Importance to Philosophy
The manifest image is the reality as humans observe and experience it daily, a perspective allowing for free will, societal norms, and individual agency. The scientific image, in contrast, posits a universe governed by physical laws, with personal and social phenomena being accounted for in terms of these laws—sometimes challenging the commonsense notions held within the manifest image.
The reconciliation of these images is crucial for philosophy as it strives for a complete understanding of reality. Philosophical inquiry aims to bring into focus how these differing perspectives hang together, thus enabling philosophy to have an eye on the whole.