Friday,
17 September 2004
Images,
Evidence, and Pictorial Convention
Laura
Perini
PhilosophyVirginia
Tech
12:05 pm, 817R Cathedral of Learning
Abstract: Figures produced by imaging techniques
like electron micrographs and sonographs are often presented as
evidential support in scientific papers and talks. Understanding
how images play this epistemic role requires a foundational philosophical
analysis of the nature of these visual representations. The
only detailed account available implies that the content of all
such images is determined in part by convention. The involvement
of convention in determining the content of visual representations
seems to conflict with the naturalness of certain kinds of images,
and thus to threaten the evidential role played by figures produced
by imaging techniques. In this paper I will resolve this apparent
conflict and clarify how visual representations provide evidence
in scientific arguments.
|