On Images

Whether it was the demands of life, leisure, or a combination of both that forced our hands, we have developed a myriad of artifacts--maps, notes, descriptions, diagrams, flow-charts, photographs, paintings, and prints--that stand for other things. Most agree that images and their close relatives are special because, in some sense, they look like what they are about. This simple claim is the starting point for most philosophical investigations into the nature of depiction.

On Images, by contrast, argues that what it is to be a picture does not fundamentally concern how such representations can be perceived. What matters is not how we perceive representations but how they relate to one another. This kind of approach, first championed by Nelson Goodman in his Languages of Art, has not found many supporters, in part because of weaknesses with Goodman's account. On Images shows that a properly crafted structural account of pictures has many advantages over the perceptual accounts that dominate the literature on this topic. In particular, it explains the close relationship between pictures, diagrams, graphs and other kinds of non-linguistic representation. Kulvicki undermines the claim that pictures are essentially visual by showing how many kinds of non-visual representations, including audio recordings and tactile line drawings, are genuinely pictorial. Part Two shows that the structural account of depiction can help to explain why pictures seem so perceptually special, rather than taking that fact for granted. Based on these results, Part Three provides a new account of pictorial realism.


"On Images is an important book on the topic of pictorial representation that will, no doubt, contribute significantly to our understanding of many aspects of this phenomenon, even some of the most perplexing ones...one of the most valuable and important contributions to the topic."--Mind

"Innovative and well-written. A great contribution to one of the most popular topics in aesthetics. I strongly recommend this book . One of the best on the topic."--British Journal of Aesthetics

"From start to finish, it is original, beautifully argued, and just brimming with useful ideas. It is written in clear, crisp prose and unfolds in a logical manner. I learned something from almost every sentence in this book. I predict that it will enter the ranks of the classics in the philosophy of pictures."--Dominic McIver Lopes, University of British Columbia

"[A] provocative book...more than amply illustrates his capacity for genuinely original philosophical thought.... In the breadth and depth of his coverage of this literature, his discussion is unparalleled. The account that results from this investigation is an unprecedented synthesis of the merits of these otherwise divergent views. For this reason alone, any subsequent work on pictorial representation will have to take his account into consideration. It may not be the last word on pictorial representation, but it will certainly remain a centerpiece of philosophical discussions of this topic for quite some time."--Zed Adams, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism"