Open AccessDepiction and Convention
Author(s) -
Blumson Ben
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
dialectica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.483
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1746-8361
pISSN - 0012-2017
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-8361.2008.01156.x
Subject(s) - depiction , representation (politics) , convention , analogy , counterintuitive , symbol (formal) , philosophy , epistemology , linguistics , sociology , law , political science , social science , politics
A bstract By defining both depictive and linguistic representation as kinds of symbol system, Nelson Goodman attempts to undermine the platitude that, whereas linguistic representation is mediated by convention, depiction is mediated by resemblance. I argue that Goodman is right to draw a strong analogy between the two kinds of representation, but wrong to draw the counterintuitive conclusion that depiction is not mediated by resemblance.