Thursday, October 14, 2010

Art and Knowledge States

Before me is a picture of trees and cliffs by the sea, painted in dull grays, and expressing great sadness…The picture is literally gray but only metaphorically sad…But to say that it is sad is metaphorically true even though literally false. Just as the picture clearly belongs under the label ‘gray’ than under the label ‘yellow,’ it also clearly belongs under ‘sad’ than under ‘gray.’

Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1976), pp. 50, 68, 70.

from, Theodore W. Schick Jr. "The Epistemic Role of Qualitative Content" Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Vol. 52, No. 2 (Jun., 1992): 383-393.

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