Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:55:53.348Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Truth in Pictures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Laura Perini
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scientists typically use a variety of representations, including different kinds of figures, to present and defend hypotheses. In order to understand the justification of scientific hypotheses, it is essential to understand how visual representations contribute to scientific arguments. Since the logical understanding of arguments involves the truth or falsity of the representations involved, visual representations must have the capacity to bear truth in order to be genuine components of arguments. By drawing on Goodman's analysis of symbol systems, and on Tarski's work on truth, I show that the figures used in science meet this criterion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , January 2005 , pp. 262 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

I wish to thank Philip Kitcher, Sandy Mitchell, Paul Churchland, Brian Keeley and Anne Margaret Baxley for reading drafts of this piece throughout its development, and the anonymous reviewers from Philosophy of Science for their helpful comments.

References

Abrahams, Jan Pieter, Leslie, Andrew G. W., Lutter, René, and Walker, John E. (1994), “Structure at 2.8 Å Resolution of F1-ATPase from Bovine Heart Mitochondria”, Structure at 2.8 Å Resolution of F1-ATPase from Bovine Heart Mitochondria 370 (6491): 621–628..Google ScholarPubMed
Baigrie, Brian (ed.) (1996), Picturing Knowledge: Historical and Philosophical Problems concerning the Use of Art in Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandez-Moran, Humberto (1962), “Cell-Membrane Ultrastructure: Low-Temperature Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Diffraction Studies of Lipoprotein Components in Lamellar Systems”, Cell-Membrane Ultrastructure: Low-Temperature Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Diffraction Studies of Lipoprotein Components in Lamellar Systems 26:1039–1065.Google ScholarPubMed
Files, Craig (1996), “Goodman’s Rejection of Resemblance”, Goodman’s Rejection of Resemblance 36:398–402.Google Scholar
Goodman, Nelson (1976), Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols. Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Hammer, Eric (1995), Logic and Visual Information. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip, and Varzi, Achille (2000), “Some Pictures Are Worth $2^{\aleph _{0}}$ Sentences”, Philosophy 75:377–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, Michael, and Woolgar, Steve (eds.) (1990), Representation in Scientific Practice. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Nathaniel (2001), A Diagrammatic Formal System for Euclidean Geometry. Ph.D. Dissertation. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.Google Scholar
Penefsky, Harvey (1977), “Reversible Binding of Pi by Beef Heart Mitochondrial Adenosine Triphosphotase”, Reversible Binding of Pi by Beef Heart Mitochondrial Adenosine Triphosphotase 252(9): 2891–2899.Google Scholar
Sargent, Pauline (1996), “On the Use of Visualization in the Practice of Science”, On the Use of Visualization in the Practice of Science 63 (Proceedings): S230–S238.Google Scholar
Tarski, Alfred (1956), “The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages”, in Logic, Semantics, Mathematics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Peter J., and Blum, Ann S. (eds.) (1991), Pictorial Representation in Biology, a special edition of the journal Biology and Philosophy 6(2).Google Scholar