A fotografia como significado natural
Paul Grice e o problema da comunicação fotográfica
Keywords:
Philosophy of photography, communication, communicative intentionAbstract
Although communication through photographs is a common phenomenon, within the analytical tradition, we lack elements to understand the structure and dynamics of this form of communication. The absence of conceptual tools to comprehend photographic communication can be traced back to the predominant viewpoint established by Paul Grice in his seminal article of 1957. Photography, according to him, being a form of natural meaning, would not constitute a genuine means of communication. I will argue that there are at least two paths to establish the communicational theory of photography from Grice’s intentionalist perspective. If we accept recent developments in the philosophy of photography, which depart from the necessarily factual nature of photography, we could say, in Grice’s terms, that photography could also be a form of non-natural meaning. A more fruitful critique of Grice can be found in abandoning one of the requirements he imposed on communication.
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