Depiction

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Depiction, in analytic philosophy, is pictorial representation. The Mona Lisa, for example, depicts Lisa and photographs depict what they represent. Not all representation by means of a picture is depiction: a picture of a lamb, for example, may represent Christ symbolically, but not pictorial ( Peacocke, 1987, 383). Similarly, depictions are usually distinguished from abstract paintings, which are a different kind of representation, if they are representations at all (Lopes, 1996).

There is an important debate in analytic philosophy over whether or not depictive representation is mediated by resemblance, as common sense would suggest, or whether an alternative theory of depictive representation is required. The main difficulty is that resemblance is insufficient for depiction: everything resembles itself, for example, but not everything is a depiction of itself. Similarly, resemblance is a symmetric relation, but depiction is not. The Duke of Wellington resembles his portrait, for example, in exactly the respects that his portrait resembles him, but although the portrait represents the duke, the duke does not represent the portrait (Goodman, 1968).

Alternative analyses hold that depiction is a kind of symbol system which is syntactically dense, semantically dense and relatively replete (Goodman 1968, Kulvicki 2006) or that it should be defined in terms of a perceptual effect such as illusion, seeing-in (Wollheim, 1987), imaginary seeing (Walton, 1990)or experienced resemblance (Hopkins, 1998). Another approach is to define depictive representation in terms of recognitional abilities (Schier, 1986; Lopes, 1996).

Other debates about the nature of depiction include the relationship between seeing something in a picture and seeing face to face, whether depictive representation is conventional, how understanding novel depictions is possible, the aesthetic and ethical value of depiction and the nature of realism in pictorial art.

[edit] Books on Depiction

Some important books on depiction are:

Goodman, Nelson (1968), Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.).

Hopkins, Robert (1998), Picture, Image, and Experience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Hyman, John (2006), The Objective Eye: Colour, Form and Reality in the Theory of Art (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press).

Kulvicki, John (2006), On Images: Their structure and content (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Lopes, Dominic (1996), Understanding Pictures (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Lopes, Dominic (2005), Sight and Sensibility: Evaluating Pictures (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Maynard, Patrick (1997), The Engine of Visualization: Thinking Through Photography (Ithaca: Cornell University Press).

Maynard, Patrick (2005), Drawing Distinctions: The Varieties of Graphic Expression (Ithaca: Cornell University Press).

Novitz, David (1977), Pictures and their Use in Communication (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff).

Schier, Flint (1986), Deeper Into Pictures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Walton, Kendall (1990), Mimesis as Make-believe (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press).

Wollheim, Richard (1987), Painting as an Art (London: Thames and Hudson).

[edit] Articles on Depiction

An incomplete list of articles on depiction:

Abell, Catharine (2005a), ‘Pictorial Implicature’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism , 63(1): 55-66.

Abell, Catharine (2005b), ‘Against Depictive Conventionalism’, The American Philosophical Quarterly, 42(3): 185-197.

Abell, Catharine (2005), ‘On Outlining the Shape of Depiction’, Ratio, 18(1): 27-38.

Abell, Catharine (2005), ‘McIntosh's Unrealistic Picture of Peacocke and Hopkins on Realistic Pictures’, British Journal of Aesthetics, 45(1): 64-68.

Bennett, John (1971), ‘Depiction and Convention?’, The Monist 58: 255-68.

Budd, Malcolm (1992), ‘On Looking at a Picture’, in Robert Hopkins and Anthony Savile (eds.), Psychoanalysis, Mind, and Art (Oxford: Blackwell).

Budd, Malcolm (1993), ‘How Pictures Look’ in Dudley Knowles and John Skorupski (eds.), Virtue and Taste (Oxford: Blackwell).

Bach, Kent (1970), ‘Part of What a Picture Is’, British Journal of Aesthetics, 10: 119-137.

Black, M. (1972), ‘How Do Pictures Represent’, in Black, Gombrich and Hochburg, Art, Perception, and Reality (Baltimore, Md.).

Carrier, David (1971), ‘A Reading of Goodman on Representation?’, The Monist 58: 269-84.

Carrol, Noel (1994), ‘Visual Metaphor’ in Jaakko Hintikka (ed.), Aspects of Metaphor (Kluwer Publishers), 189-218; reprinted in Noel Carrol (2001), Beyond Aesthetics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Dilworth, John (2002), ‘Three Depictive Views Defended’, The British Journal of Aesthetics, 42(3): 259-278.

Dilworth, John (2002), ‘Varieties of Visual Representation’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 32(2): 183-205.

Dilworth, John (2003), ‘Medium, Subject Matter and Representation’, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 41(1): 45-62.

Dilworth, John (2003), ‘Pictorial Orientation Matters’, The British Journal of Aesthetics 43(1): 39-56.

Dilworth, John (2005), ‘Resemblance, Restriction and Content-Bearing Features’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 63(1): 67-70.

Dilworth, John (2005), ‘The Perception of Representational Content’, British Journal of Aesthetics, 45(4): 388-411.

Hopkins, Robert (1994), 'Resemblance and Misrepresentation', Mind, 103(412): 421-238.

Hopkins, Robert (1995), ‘Explaining Depiction’, Philosophical Review, 104(3):

Hopkins, Robert (1997), ‘Pictures and Beauty’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, XCVII: 177-194.

Hopkins, Robert (1997), 'El Greco's Eyesight: Interpreting Pictures and the Psychology of Vision', Philosophical Quarterly, 47(189): 441-458.

Hopkins, Robert (2000), ‘Touching Pictures’ British Journal of Aesthetics 40: 149-67.

Hopkins, Robert (2003), 'What Makes Representational Painting Truly Visual? Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary, LXXVII: 149-167.

Hopkins, Robert (2003), 'Pictures, Phenomenology and Cognitive Science', The Monist, 86.

Hopkins, Robert (2005), ‘What Is Pictorial Representation’, in Mathew Kieran (ed.), Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Art (Oxford: Blackwell).

Howell, R. (1974), ‘The Logical Structure of Pictorial Representation’, Theoria 2: 76-109.

Hyman, John (2000), ‘Pictorial Art and Visual Experience’, British Journal of Aesthetics 40:2 1-45.

Kjorup, Soren (1971), ‘George Inness and the Battle at Hastings or Doing Things With Pictures’, The Monist 58: 217-36.

Kulvicki, John (2003), ‘Image Structure’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 61(4): 323-39.

Lehrer, Keith (2004), ‘Representation in Painting and Consciousness’, Philosophical Studies, 117(1); 1-14.

Lopes, Dominic (1997), ‘Art Media and the Sense Modalities: Tactile Pictures’, Philosophical Quarterly, 47(189): 425-440.

Lopes, Dominic (2004), ‘Directive Pictures’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 62(2): 189-96.

Lopes, Dominic (2005), Sight and Sensibility: Evaluating Pictures (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Malinas, Gary (1991), ‘A Semantics for Pictures’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 21(3): 275-298.

Manns, James W (1971), ‘Representation, Relativism and Resemblance’, British Journal of Aesthetics 11: 281-7).

Maynard, Patrick (1972), ‘Depiction, Vision and Convention’, American Philosophical Quarterly, 9: 243-50.

McIntosh, Gavin (2003), ‘Depiction Unexplained: Peacocke and Hopkins on Pictorial Representation’, The British Journal of Aesthetics, 43(3):279-288.

Nanay, Bence (2004), ‘Taking Twofoldness Seriously: Walton on Imagination and Depiction’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 62(3): 285-9.

Nanay, Bence (2005), ‘Is Twofoldness Necessary for Representational Seeing?’, British Journal of Aesthetics 45(3): 263-272.

Neander, Karen (1987), ‘Pictorial Representation: A Matter of Resemblance’, British Journal of Aesthetics, 27(3): 213-26.

Newall, Michael (2003), ‘A Restriction for Pictures and Some Consequences for a Theory of Depiction’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 61: 381-94.

Novitz, David (1975), ‘Picturing’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 34: 144-55.

Pateman, Trevor (1980), ‘How to do Things with Images: An Essay on the Pragmatics of Advertising’, Theory and Society, 9(4): 603-622.

Pateman, Trevor (1983), ‘How is Understanding an Advertisement Possible?’ in Howard Davis and Paul Walton (eds.), Language, Image, Media (London: Blackwell).

Pateman, Trevor (1986), ‘Translucent and Transparent Icons’, British Journal of Aesthetics, 26: 380-2.

Peacocke, Christopher (1987), Depiction, The Philosophical Review, 96: 383-410.

Ross, Stephanie (1971), ‘Caricature’, The Monist 58: 285-93.

Savile, Anthony (1986) ‘Imagination and Pictorial Understanding’, Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 60: 19-44.

Sartwell, Crispin (1991), ‘Natural Generativity and Imitation’, British Journal of Aesthetics, 31: 58-67.

Schier, Flint (1993) ‘Van Gogh’s Boots: The Claims of Representation’ in Dudley Knowles and John Skorupski (eds.) Virtue and Taste (Oxford: Blackwell).

Scholz, Oliver (2000), ‘A Solid Sense of Syntax’, Erkenntnis, 52: 199-212.

Sorenson, Roy (2002), ‘The Art of the Impossible’ in Tamar Szabo Gendler and John Hawthorne (eds.), Conceivability and Possibility (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Walton, Kendall (1971), ‘Are Representations Symbols?’, The Monist 58: 236-254.

Walton, Kendall (1974), ‘Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism’, Critical Inquiry, 11(2): 246-277.

Walton, Kendall (1992), ‘Seeing-In and Seeing Fictionally’, in James Hopkins and Anthony Savile (eds.), Mind, Psychoanalysis, and Art: Essays for Richard Wollheim, (Oxford: Blackwell), 281–291.

Walton, Kendall (1993), ‘Make-Believe, and its Role in Pictorial Representation and the Acquisition of Knowledge’, Philosophic Exchange 23: 81–95.

Walton, Kendall (1997), ‘On Pictures and Photographs: Objections Answered’, in Richard Allen and Murray Smith (eds.), Film Theory and Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 60-75.

Walton, Kendall (2002), ‘Depiction, Perception, and Imagination: Responses to Richard Wollheim’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 60(1): 27-35.

Wilkerson, T. E. (1991), ‘Pictorial Representation: A defense of the Aspect Theory’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 16: 152-166.

Wollheim, Richard (1990), ‘A Note on Mimesis as Make-Believe’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 51(2): 401-6.

Wollheim, Richard (1998), ‘Pictorial Representation’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56: 217-26.

Wolsterstorff, Nicholas (1991a), ‘Two Approaches to Representation – And Then a Third’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 16: 167-199.