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The Truth in Pictures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Laura Perini
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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

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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.

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