ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop Richard Wollheim’s claim that the proper appreciation of a picture involves not only enjoying a seeing-in experience but also abiding by a standard of correctness. While scholars in the philosophy of depiction have so far focused on the distinction between standards fixed by intentions and standards fixed by causal mechanisms, I shall highlight a distinction that is more essential to the standard of correctness, namely, that between a kind-standard, an individual-standard, and standpoint-standard. I shall argue that the kind-standard and the individual-standard can be relevant also to ordinary perception, whereas the standpoint-standard is specific to the pictorial experience. I shall illustrate the explanatory power of these notions by considering Van Gogh’s painting “Shoes” (1886) and the philosophical debate of it, in particular Jacques Derrida’s reflections in his book The Truth in Painting. Finally, I shall propose an ontology of depiction according to which a picture is constituted by both its visual appearance and its standard of correctness, and I shall consider the consequences of this ontological account for what concerns the relationship between pictures, truth, and post-truth.
