Canny resemblance
Philosophical Review 118 (2):183-223 (2009)
Abstract
Depiction is the form of representation distinctive of figurative paintings, drawings, and photographs. Accounts of depiction attempt to specify the relation something must bear to an object in order to depict it. Resemblance accounts hold that the notion of resemblance is necessary to the specification of this relation. Several difficulties with such analyses have led many philosophers to reject the possibility of an adequate resemblance account of depiction. This essay outlines these difficulties and argues that current resemblance accounts succumb to them. It then develops an alternative resemblance account, drawing on Grice's account of nonnatural meaning and its role in determining sentence meaning to argue that something depicts an object if it bears intention-based resemblances to the object that jointly capture its overall appearance. In addition to solving the metaphysical problem of what it is for something to depict an object, this account also sheds significant light on the epistemological issue of how we are able to work out that something depicts an object. This essay argues that our ability to work out that something depicts an object results from both our more general ability to identify intentions from the products of communicative behavior and our knowledge of stylistic conventions. This account avoids the difficulties that face rival attempts to analyze depiction in terms of resemblance. It also clarifies and explains the features that distinguish depictive from nondepictive representation.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1215/00318108-2008-041
My notes
Similar books and articles
Is the partial identity account of property resemblance logically incoherent?Sophie Gibb - 2007 - Dialectica 61 (4):539-558.
Depiction unexplained: Peacocke and Hopkins on pictorial representation.Gavin McIntosh - 2003 - British Journal of Aesthetics 43 (3):279-288.
Resemblance, Restriction, and Content‐Bearing Features.John Dilworth - 2005 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 63 (1):67–70.
Deeper Into Pictures: An Essay on Pictorial Representation.Flint Schier - 1986 - Cambridge University Press.
Analytics
Added to PP
2009-03-19
Downloads
223 (#56,524)
6 months
6 (#132,512)
2009-03-19
Downloads
223 (#56,524)
6 months
6 (#132,512)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
Depiction, Pictorial Experience, and Vision Science.Robert Briscoe - 2016 - Philosophical Topics 44 (2):43-81.
Semantics of Pictorial Space.Gabriel Greenberg - 2021 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 1 (4):847-887.
References found in this work
Naming and Necessity: Lectures Given to the Princeton University Philosophy Colloquium.Saul A. Kripke - 1980 - Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Relevance: Communication and Cognition.Dan Sperber & Deirdre Wilson - 1986/1995 - Oxford: Blackwell.
Spreading the Word: Groundings in the Philosophy of Language.Simon Blackburn - 1984 - Clarendon Press.