Katerina Bantinaki – författare

Pictures are representations that depict their objects. Although depiction plays as important a role as language in contemporary culture and communication, its function is relatively poorly understood. This volume of specially written essays by leading philosophers offers to set the agenda for the philosophy of depiction. It addresses a wide range of philosophical issues, concerning the nature and value of depiction, the role of our perceptual processes in interpreting pictures, and the role of depiction in everyday communication.

Empathy is widely acknowledged as a central, if not necessary, mechanism for understanding works of art, and even as the mode of engagement that mediates art’s edifying effects. Bringing together 15 essays by established scholars, this volume probes the character and role of empathy in our engagement with different forms of art, but also the value of such engagement for cognition, our emotive life, and our moral stance. Opening with a historical reconstruction of the origins of the concept of empathy, the volume develops in four parts that explore in turn our empathic engagement with fictional characters, the cognitive value of such engagement, its relevance for moral agency, as well as the thorny issue of empathic engagement with the inanimate in art, focusing on music and architecture. With an interest in both aesthetics and philosophy of mind, the volume provides an in-depth discussion of these themes, giving careful attention to historical, systematic, and interdisciplinary perspectives.