Seeing‐in and Singling Out: How to Reconcile Pictures with Singular Thought

Abstract

: According to the standard view of pictorial reference, a picture pro-duces singular thought in virtue of both its appearance and its history. Zeimbekis (2010) challenges this view, arguing that the perception of the picture ’ s appearance does not contribute to the production of singular thought. The paper de-fends the standard view from Zeimbekis ’ challenge, specifying the roles of appearance and history in pictorial reference. While knowledge about the picture ’ s history allows one to identify the standpoint from which to see the scene depicted, the perception of the picture ’ s appearance exploits that standpoint to single out individuals in that scene.