117. Understanding a genre picture: don’t we recognize the painted
people as people and the painted trees as trees, etc.?
A picture of a human face is no less familiar object than the human face
itself. But there is no question of recognition here.
with ‘recognition’ – we are talking about description –
we describe a picture of the
human face as a ‘representation of the human face’ –
and we describe a human face
itself – as ‘a human face’
how we recognize – is how we
describe
there is no necessity behind any descriptive action –
however there are various accounts – philosophical – scientific – of the
basis or ground of different descriptive paths
these accounts attempt to ‘explain’ how we describe – and why we
describe the way we do
any such account will be complex – a complex of proposals –
however these descriptions – complex and entrenched as they may well be
– are open to question – open to doubt –
uncertain
‘familiarity’ is to be accounted for in terms of propositional use
we are familiar with those
propositions that we have used and that other people have used
to understand is to be
propositionally active
© greg t. charlton. 2015.
