The Myth that Dewey Accepts "the Myth of the Given"

Robert Brandom accuses John Dewey of entanglement with what Wilfrid Sellars calls "the Myth of the Given." This is strange since Dewey explicitly rejects any kind of epistemological givenness, although he does accept qualitative existential givenness. If existence were not given, we would have to create meaning and knowledge ex nihilo. My paper examines the only argument Brandom makes claiming Dewey adheres to the myth. I show that Brandom is mistaken. In doing so, I demonstrate that Dewey refutes the myth using arguments some of which are surprisingly similar to those offered by Sellars.