Digital Commons@RISD Home > Division of Liberal Arts > Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive) > Vol. 21 (2023)
Abstract
Wartenberg’s book, Thoughtful Images, is an ambitious defense of the value of philosophical illustrations. Through examples from a vast historical sweep, he differentiates several ways that images help us understand or even enact philosophy. My critical response focuses on how viewers understand and make sense of visual images, by comparison with how we interpret texts of philosophical authors. I argue that the relevant processes of interpretation are more similar than what Wartenberg assumes, especially when issues arise about the role of narratives in both texts and pictures.