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All Outputs (26)

Against Imprinting: The Photographic Image as a Source of Evidence (2022)
Journal Article
Wilson, D. M. (in press). Against Imprinting: The Photographic Image as a Source of Evidence. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 89(4),

A photographic image is said to provide evidence of a photographed scene because it is a causal imprint of reflected light: an indexical trace of real objects and events. Though widely established in the history, theory and philosophy of photography,... Read More about Against Imprinting: The Photographic Image as a Source of Evidence.

Reflecting, Registering, Recording and Representing: From Light Image to Photographic Picture (2022)
Journal Article
Wilson, D. (2022). Reflecting, Registering, Recording and Representing: From Light Image to Photographic Picture. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 122(2), 141-164. https://doi.org/10.1093/arisoc/aoac008

Photography is valued as a medium for recording and visually reproducing features of the world. I seek to challenge the view that photography is fundamentally a recording process and that every photograph is a record — a view that I claim is based on... Read More about Reflecting, Registering, Recording and Representing: From Light Image to Photographic Picture.

Invisible Images and Indeterminacy: Why We Need a Multi-stage Account of Photography (2021)
Journal Article
Wilson, D. M. (2021). Invisible Images and Indeterminacy: Why We Need a Multi-stage Account of Photography. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 79(2), 161-174. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpab005

Some photographs show determinate features of a scene because the photographed scene had those features. This dependency relation is, rightly, a consensus in philosophy of photography. I seek to refute many long-established theories of photography by... Read More about Invisible Images and Indeterminacy: Why We Need a Multi-stage Account of Photography.

Epistemic pluralism : the missing link and the ambitions of epistemology (2020)
Journal Article
Zangwill, N. (2020). Epistemic pluralism : the missing link and the ambitions of epistemology. Metaphilosophy, 51, 485-498

In this paper epistemic pluralism concerning knowledge is taken to be the claim that very different facts may constitute knowledge. The paper argues for pluralism by arguing that very different facts can constitute the knowledge‐making links between... Read More about Epistemic pluralism : the missing link and the ambitions of epistemology.

Brutalist non-naturalism and Hume's principle (2018)
Journal Article
Zangwill, N. (2018). Brutalist non-naturalism and Hume's principle. Dialectica, 72(3), 365-383. https://doi.org/10.1111/1746-8361.12235

Does moral non-naturalism have a problem with supervenience? That is, are necessary relations between moral and natural properties mysterious if those properties are distinct? Here I try to remove anxiety about the modal comments of moral non-natural... Read More about Brutalist non-naturalism and Hume's principle.

The yummy and the yucky: Expressive language and the agreeable (2018)
Journal Article
Zangwill, N. (2018). The yummy and the yucky: Expressive language and the agreeable. The Monist, 101(3), 294–308. https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/ony007

I probe the judgments of the agreeable that we make about food and drink. I ?rst separate different concerns that we might have with food and drink. After that, I address expressive language by ?rst sketching an evolutionary language-game-theoretic a... Read More about The yummy and the yucky: Expressive language and the agreeable.

Self-belief and agency (2017)
Journal Article
Zangwill, N. (2017). Self-belief and agency. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 38(1), 35-52

I argue for the view that we all believe that we exist from the fact that the belief is a presupposition of some of our mental life. We cannot argue from perceptual experience, but we can argue from action. I defend an essentially active (or perhaps... Read More about Self-belief and agency.

Moral dependence and natural properties (2017)
Journal Article
Zangwill, N. (2017). Moral dependence and natural properties. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, 91(1), 221-243. https://doi.org/10.1093/arisup/akx007

I explore the Because Constraint—the idea that moral facts depend on natural facts and that moral judgements ought to respect the dependence of moral facts on natural facts. I consider several issues concerning its clarification and importance.

Scepticism about Scepticism (2015)
Journal Article
Zangwill, N. (2016). Scepticism about Scepticism. Philosophy : the journal of the British Institute of Philosophical Studies, 91(1), 109-118. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819115000522

Skeptical arguments are intuitively gripping. Or at least they seem to be. They readily capture the imagination and curiosity of beginners in philosophy. The arguments are easy to state but seemingly impossible to answer. Furthermore there is a power... Read More about Scepticism about Scepticism.

Clouds of illusion in the aesthetics of nature (2013)
Journal Article
Zangwill, N. (2013). Clouds of illusion in the aesthetics of nature. Philosophical Quarterly, 63(252), 576-596. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9213.12050

I defend extreme formalism about the aesthetics of inorganic nature. I outline the general issue over aesthetic formalism as it manifests itself in the visual arts. The main issue is over whether we need to know about the history of artworks in order... Read More about Clouds of illusion in the aesthetics of nature.

Facing the camera: Self-portraits of photographers as artists (2012)
Journal Article
Wilson, D. M. (2012). Facing the camera: Self-portraits of photographers as artists. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 70(1), 56-66. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6245.2011.01498.x

Self-portrait photography presents an elucidatory range of cases for investigating the relationship between automatism and artistic agency in photography-a relationship that is seen as a problem in the philosophy of art. I discuss self-portraits by p... Read More about Facing the camera: Self-portraits of photographers as artists.

Fixing the image : re-thinking the 'mind-independence' of photographs (2009)
Journal Article
Phillips, D. M. (2009). Fixing the image : re-thinking the 'mind-independence' of photographs. Postgraduate journal of aesthetics, 6(2), 1-22

It has been argued that photographs are unsuitable or inferior candidates for art because they are not intimately bound to the mind of an artist. I believe that we can address scepticism in the philosophy of art only if we recognise that it is linked... Read More about Fixing the image : re-thinking the 'mind-independence' of photographs.

Photography and causation: Responding to Scruton's scepticism (2009)
Journal Article
Phillips, D. M. (2009). Photography and causation: Responding to Scruton's scepticism. British Journal of Aesthetics, 49(4), 327-340. https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayp036

According to Roger Scruton, it is not possible for photographs to be representational art. Most responses to Scruton's scepticism are versions of the claim that Scruton disregards the extent to which intentionality features in photography; but these... Read More about Photography and causation: Responding to Scruton's scepticism.