The phenomenological form of pictorial representation

pp. 125-146

in: Eduard Marbach, Mental representation and consciousness, Deventer, Kluwer, 1993

Abstract

The theory of mental representation that I am arguing for in the present study is, as was already apparent in the Introduction, in sharp contrast to currently held versions of the so-called representational theory of mind (RTM). To recall the main point, proponents of RTM, or of representationalism, postulate mental vehicles, or mental symbols/signs, of representation. In the context of the present study, mental images, quasi-pictorial representations and the like entities, assumed to be at work in achieving imagistic reference,are of particular interest (see above, p. 2ff.). For up to this point an analysis of relatively simple phenomenological forms of purely mentally representing something has here been proposed, according to which these activities of intentionally referring to an object in the intuitive manner do not require any mental vehicle of representation.