Whether it was the demands of life, leisure, or a combination of both that forced our hands, we have developed a myriad of artefacts---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.

About the Author
John V. Kulvicki is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire

Reviews
Review from previous edition 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 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199561674
Author John V. Kulvicki
Format Paperback
Page Count 274
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 344g
Dimensions(mm) 215mm * 138mm * 16mm