Showing, Sensing, and Seeming
Distinctively Sensory Representations and their Contents
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:30th Mar '17
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- Hardback£82.00(9780199653737)
Certain representations are bound in a special way to our sensory capacities. Many pictures show things as looking certain ways, for instance, while auditory mental images show things as sounding certain ways. What do all those distinctively sensory representations have in common, and what makes them different from representations of other kinds? Dominic Gregory argues that they are alike in having meanings of a certain special type. He employs a host of novel ideas relating to kinds of perceptual states, sensory perspectives, and sensory varieties of meaning to provide a detailed account of the special nature of the contents which belong to distinctively sensory representations. The resulting theory is then used to shed light on a wide range of intellectual issues. Some of the topics addressed in Showing, Sensing, and Seeming relate to distinctively sensory representations in general, but many of them concern distinctively sensory representations of more specific kinds. The book contains detailed philosophical examinations of sensory mental imagery and pictures, for instance, and of memory, photography, and analogous nonvisual phenomena.
The aim of Dominic Gregory's Showing, Sensing, and Seeming is to see what can be gained by theorizing about these representations as a class. The book makes a convincing case that the answer is quite a lot. Clearly written and well argued, it offers a theory of distinctively sensory representations -- the first of its kind -- and then uses it to weigh in on a range of debates. * Margot Strohminger, British Journal of Aesthetics *
Rich and original. * Angela Mendelovici, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
Anyone interested in the question of how mental imagery is related to sensory experience will undoubtedly find Dominic Gregory's Showing, Sensing, and Seeming interesting and rich. * Jennifer Corns, The Philosophical Quarterly *
Gregory's book shows how fruitful it can be to approach well-known discussions -- such as those involving depiction, mental imagery, and picture perception -- from a wider perspective. Familiar problems can be seen under a new light once we recognize they are grounded in the common nature that represetnations share. * Giulia Martina, Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics *
a thought-provoking, unified defence of a particular view about an impressively wide range of representations. Those interested in philosophical theories of imagery and pictorial representation, and in how those theories interact with emperical debates, could learn a lot by engaging with it. * Perception *
a wonderfully engaging investigation of diverse topics. All philosophers interested in the divide between sensory and non-sensory representation will want to read this book. * Michael Rescorla, Mind *
a timely, insightful, and individual examination of the nature and contents of 'distinctively sensory representations' . . . the prose is clear and lively, with some nice touches of personality. The discussion ranges widely over literature in philosophy, psychology, and art history. * Nick Wiltsher, Philosophy in Review *
ISBN: 9780198800071
Dimensions: 216mm x 137mm x 13mm
Weight: 312g
244 pages