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.