Jessica Pepp
Umea
"Perceiving through Photographs and Perceiving through Words"
Kendall Walton (1984, 1997) has argued that photographs are “transparent,” in the sense that by perceiving a photograph of a thing one may also perceive that thing. This transparency is supposed to set photographs apart from drawings or paintings, and from written, spoken, or signed words. I will argue that if Walton is right that we can perceive what photographs are of by perceiving photographs, then there is also reason to accept that we can perceive what words refer to by perceiving words. My focus in this talk will be on the conditional claim, which puts words and photographs on a par as putative vehicles of indirect perception, rather than on the unconditional claim that both are vehicles of indirect perception.
Umea
"Perceiving through Photographs and Perceiving through Words"
Kendall Walton (1984, 1997) has argued that photographs are “transparent,” in the sense that by perceiving a photograph of a thing one may also perceive that thing. This transparency is supposed to set photographs apart from drawings or paintings, and from written, spoken, or signed words. I will argue that if Walton is right that we can perceive what photographs are of by perceiving photographs, then there is also reason to accept that we can perceive what words refer to by perceiving words. My focus in this talk will be on the conditional claim, which puts words and photographs on a par as putative vehicles of indirect perception, rather than on the unconditional claim that both are vehicles of indirect perception.