Rufus M. Jones Professor and Chair of Philosophy
Bryn Mawr College

“What is a Picture?”

This talk concerns the status of the image or picture in “western” philosophical tradition.  Plato is both the father of iconoclasm and the father of iconophilia. This tradition both influences and is influenced by the Abrahamic religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  Modern philosophy can be characterized as largely “representationalist.”  Phenomenology rejects representationalism and provides a different understanding of the picture.