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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00410
- Thesis Title
- Resemblance and Representation
- Author
- Ben Blumson
- E-mail
- benblumson AT nus.edu.sg
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- PhD
- Year
- 2007
- Number of Pages
- 185
- University
- Australian National University
- Thesis Supervisor
- Daniel Stoljar
- Supervisor e-mail
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Philosophy
- Copyright Ownership
- Ben Blumson
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English
- URL where full thesis can be found
- Keywords
- Depiction; Pictures; Resemblance; Representation; Goodman
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- It is a platitude – something only a philosopher would dream of denying – that whereas words are connected to what they represent merely by arbitrary conventions, depictions are connected to what they represent by resemblance. The important difference between my portrait and my name, for example, is that whereas my portrait and I are connected by my portrait’s resemblance to me, my name and I are connected merely by an arbitrary convention. The first aim of this thesis is to defend the platitude that depiction is mediated by resemblance. Reflection on the fact that depiction is a kind of representation tends to undermine the platitude that depiction is mediated by resemblance, because it emphasises the similarities rather than the differences between depiction and language, which in turn tends to suggest that depiction is mediated by convention rather than resemblance. So it's natural to combine the thesis that depiction is mediated by resemblance with the denial that depiction is a kind of non-natural language-like representation. Nonetheless, the second aim of this thesis is to argue for an extremely close analogy between depiction and description. The combination of these two theses – that depiction is mediated by resemblance and that depiction is a non-natural language-like kind of representation – provides a complete theory of depictive representation which combines the virtues of common sense with the insights of its detractors. The theory meets all the major objections to the thesis that depiction is mediated by resemblance, but has all the advantages of the thesis that depiction is language-like.