Digital Commons@RISD Home > Division of Liberal Arts > Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive) > Vol. 21 (2023)
Abstract
The incisive commentaries about Thoughtful Images by Cynthia Freeland, Elisabeth Schellekens, and Jeff Strayer provide the occasion for a rethinking of some of the fundamental claims about visual illustrations of philosophy that I made in the book. The essay begins with a discussion of the “logic” of the term ‘illustration’ and then discusses the relationship between illustrations and technology. A variety of different themes are then addressed, such as the possibility of musical illustrations of philosophy; differences in the processing of written texts and visual images; additions to fidelity and felicity as norms applying to successful illustrations of philosophy; and revisions in the theory of illustration put forward in the book.