Picturing the World

By John C. Gilmour

Subjects: Art
Series: SUNY series in Philosophy
Paperback : 9780887060939, 228 pages, November 1985
Hardcover : 9780887060922, 228 pages, November 1985
Out of print (Hardcover)

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Table of contents

Illustrations

Preface

Introduction

1. Representation and Truth

2. Expression and Feeling

3. Vision and Language

4. The Artisit and the Visible World

5. Meaning and Cultural Regularities

6. Imagination and Cultural Change

7. Creativity and Truth

8. Art and Self-Understanding

Bibliography

Notes

Index

Description

Scientists are portrayed as champions of objectivity and truth, and artists as champions of subjectivity and creative expression. Through analysis of modern art, John C. Gilmour shows how misleading is this separation of the world into objective and subjective spheres. This false dichotomy depends upon a dated philosophy of mind. The issues posed are developed from the ideas of Nietzche, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Ricoeur, Wittgenstein, Rorty, Dewey, and Whitehead. Picturing the World requires us to reconceive the role of the artist in the creative process and the role of the arts in general.

John C. Gilmour is professor of philosophy and director of the B. A. in Fine Arts major at Alfred University.

Reviews

"It is a remarkably thorough philosophic analysis of aesthetic problems that arise from a dualism of mind and body, and it is a reconstruction of an alternative theory. The argument is tight and cogent. " — Robert C. Neville