Time, Space and Process
© 2026 Bill Meacham, PhD
Analytic philosopher Wilfred Sellars is moderately well known for his distinction between two ways people think about life, the universe and everything He calls them the manifest image and the scientific image. “Image” is a visual metaphor for a conceptual scheme. When we understand something fully, we say that we have a complete picture of it. Using “image” rather than “picture,” Sellars claims that the manifest image is a better way of envisioning human nature than the scientific. Physicist Carlo Rovelli claims that the scientific image is a better way of thinking about what is ultimately real. The process metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead provides a way to accommodate both.
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Bill Meacham, PhD: Bill is an independent scholar in philosophy and the author of the books How To Be An Excellent Human and How to Exert Free Will, both available on his website, https://bmeacham.com. He has written numerous essays on philosophical topics as applied to everyday life on his blog “Philosophy for Real Life,” https://bmeacham.com/blog/. After earning a PhD in Philosophy he spent many years in computers and data processing. He brings the precision required for good software development to the analysis of philosophical concepts and to the deep questions posed by philosophy: What’s real? How do we know what’s real? And what shall we do about what’s real? He can be reached at bmeacham01@gmail.com or +1-512-470-4606.
