ABSTRACT
Recognition theorists do not suggest that we can understand pictures in terms of special experiences. Instead, they suggest that pictures are distinctive because they lead viewers to recognize their contents in a way quite similar to what happens in ordinary perception. Looking at a picture of a cat, a lily, or an angel leads to visual recognition of such things. This view has been developed in detail by Flint Schier (1986) and Dominic Lopes (1996), with other important contributions by Karen Neander (1987) and Crispin Sartwell (1991). The view's roots are in Gombrich (1951, 1961), but recently some have even tried to trace it back to Helmholtz (Maynard 2005) or Descartes (Hyman 2006).
