Pictures and their Use in Communication A Philosophical Essay

Ours is the age of the picture. Pictures abound in our newspapers and magazines, in storybooks and on the glossy pages of instruction manuals. We find them on billboards and postage stamps, on the television screen and in the cinema. And in all of these c

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PICTURES AND THEIR USE IN COMMUNICATION A Philosophical Essay

by

DAVID NOVITZ

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MAR TINUS NIJHOFF / THE HAGUE / 1977

In Memory of Daantjie Oosthuizen

© 1977 by MarlillllS Nijhal/'

The Haglle, NetherfOllds_ All righls resened, inel/lding the right 10 trallslate or 10 reprod/lce this book or parts thereof ill allY form_ ISBN-13 : 97K-90-247-1942 -6 1)01 IOt007/97K-94 -010- 1063-4

c-ISHN-IJ: 97K-94-0tO- l063-4

TABLE OF

CONTENTS

List oj illustrations

vii

Acknowledgements

ix

Introduction

xi Part One

PICTURES AND DEPICTING CHAPTER I

PICTURING l. Pictures and denotation 2. The use of pictures 3. Telling what a picture is of 4. Conclusion

3 3 5 10

18

CHAPTER II

DEPICTING AND THE CONVENTIONAL IMAGE l. Leonardo and the practice of depicting 2. Towards conventionalism 3. Coordination problems 4. The problem of picturehood 5. Conventions and resemblance 6. An objection to conventionalism 7. Conclusion

21 21 26 28 30 32 39 43

CHAPTER III

CONVENTIONS AND THE GROWTH OF PICTORIAL STYLE l. Two kinds of pictorial convention 2. The Gombrich problem 3. The individuation of pictorial styles 4. Pictorial progress 5. Pictorial revolutions 6. Conclusion

45 45 50 54 57 60 63

Part Two PICTORIAL REPRESENTATION CHAPTER IV

PICTORIAL ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS 1. The picture / use distinction

67 67

CONTENTS

VI

2. 3. 4. 5.

IlIocutionary acts Pictorial iIlocutions Explaining oneself Conclusion

71

75 80 84

CHAPTER V

PICTORIAL PROPOSITIONS 1. Indication and attribution 2. Can pictures express propositions? 3. Pictorial propositions - An objection 4. Pictorial propositions - Some qualifications 5. Conclusion

86 87 90 96 98 106

CHAPTER VI

THE PICTORIAL POINT OF VIEW 1. Pictures in nature - Schemata and beliefs 2. Noticing a rhinoceros 3. Perceptual revolutions 4. Visual 'Metaphor' 5. Representation and arousal 6. Pictures and expression 7. Conclusion

108 112 119 123 126 136 139 149

CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION

151

Bibliography

155

Name index

158

Subject index

160

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1

Birds

34

Figure 2

Schematic Drawings i) De Wit: Putti. From Frederik de Wit, Lumen picturae et delineationes (Amsterdam, c.1660). Victoria and Albert Museum. ii) Van de Passe: Putti. From Crispyn van de Passe, Lumen Picturae (Amsterdam, 1643). Victoria and Albert Museum. iii) Fialetti: Eyes 1608. From Odoardo Fialetti, II vero Modo ed ordine per dissegnar tutti Ie parti et membre del corpo humano (Venice, 1608). Photograph by courtesy Phaidon Press. iv) Schon: Heads. From Erhart Schon, Underweysung der Proportion (Nuremburg, 1538). Photograph by courtesy Phaidon Press. v) Vogtherr, Feet. From Heinrich Vogtherr, Ein fremds und wunderbarliches Kunstbuchlin (Strassburg, 1538). Photograph by courtesy Phaidon Press.

Figure 3

13th Century Illustrated Manuscript. Photograph by courtesy Phaidon Press.

100

Figure 4

Locusts. From the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Zentralbibliothek, ZUrich.

115

Figure 5

Nonsense Figure. From F.e. Bartlett, Remembering, Cambridge University Press, 1932. Repr