Sight and Sensibility: Evaluating PicturesOxford University Press, 2005 - 210 pages Looking at pictures, we see in them the scenes they depict, and any value they have springs from these experiences of seeing-in. Sight and Sensibility presents the first detailed and comprehensive theory of evaluating pictures. Dominic Lopes confronts the puzzle of how the value of seeing anything in a picture can exceed that of seeing it face to face - his solution pinpoints how seeing-in is like and unlike ordinary seeing. Moreover, since part of what we see in pictures is emotional expressions, his book also develops a theory of expression especially tailored to pictures. Not all evaluations of pictures as opportunities for seeing-in are aesthetic - others are cognitive or moral. Lopes argues that these evaluations interact, for some imply others. His argument entails novel conceptions of aesthetic and cognitive evaluation, such that aesthetic evaluation is distinguished from art evaluation as essentially tied to experience, and that cognitive evaluations assess cognitive capacities, including perceptual ones. Ultimately, Lopes defends images against the widespread criticism that they thwart serious thought, especially moral thought, because they merely replicate ordinary experience. He concludes by presenting detailed case studies of the contribution pictures can make to moral reflection. Sight and Sensibility will be essential reading for anyone working in aesthetics and art theory, and for all those intrigued by the power of images to affect our lives. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 The Puzzle of Mimesis | 20 |
2 The Air of Pictures | 49 |
3 Good Looking | 91 |
4 Drawing Lessons | 130 |
5 Moral Vision | 160 |
Afterword | 191 |
| 195 | |
| 205 | |
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Common terms and phrases
action aesthetic concepts aesthetic empiricism aesthetic evaluation aesthetic merit argument arousalism attribute autonomist belief Belshazzar’s Feast claim cognitive and moral cognitive evaluations cognitivism cognitivist colours contour theory contrapasso criticism Dante’s depicted figure depicted scene design expression Dorothea Lange eliminativism epitrochoidal evaluations of pictures explain expresses an emotion expression-look face to face Fatherly Discipline figure expression figure or scene function of indicating hypothetical persona illusionistic images intellectual virtue interactionism internalist conjecture judgement Kittens knowledge Last Judgement look male gaze mimesis thesis mimetic moral content moral evaluation narrative natural expression non-aesthetic evaluation object one’s painting phenomenally indistinguishable physical configuration pictorial expression picture depicts picture’s design pictures as pictures pictures as vehicles propositions puzzle of mimesis reason Rembrandt representation requires scene and design scene expression scene it depicts scene-presenting experiences seeing-in and design sentimental suitable observer suitable observer’s trompe-l’œil true vehicles for seeing-in viewer visual experience warrant Wollheim