Pictorial misrepresentation without figurative mispresentation
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Keywords

Pictorial representation
Figurative content
Pictorial content

Abstract

As many people have underlined, as regards pictures there are at least two different layers of content. In Voltolini (2015), these layers are: i) the figurative content of a picture, i.e., what one can see in it viz. what the picture presents; ii) the pictorial content of a picture, i.e., what the picture represents, as constrained by its figurative content. As regards ii), there undoubtedly ispictorial misrepresentation. Having the possibility of misrepresenting things is a standard condition in order for a picture to be a representation (Fodor 1990, Hopkins 1998). Yet as regards i), things are more problematic. First, if one intends that a picture is seen in a way that is impossible for the picture to be seen, there definitely is intentional failure, but there is no figurative mispresentation. Second, alleged cases in which one literally sees in a picture something that does not match what the picture presents (Hopkins 1998, Brown 2010) are not cases of figurative presentational failure either.
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