Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

What's so new about the "new" theory of photography?

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Costello, Diarmuid (2017) What's so new about the "new" theory of photography? Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 75 (4). pp. 439-452. doi:10.1111/jaac.12404

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP-whats-so-new-theory-photography-Costello-2017.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (841Kb) | Preview
Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12404

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This paper considers the shift currently taking place in philosophical thinking about photography. What I call “new” theory departs from philosophical orthodoxy as to when photographs come into existence. I trace this to Dawn Wilson (née Phillips) on the “photographic event.” To assess the new theory’s newness one needs a grip on the old. I divide this between “sceptical” and “non-skeptical orthodoxy,” where this turns on the theory’s implications for photography’s standing as art. New theory emerges as a response to sceptical orthodoxy (Roger Scruton) in particular. I divide new theory between “restrictive” (Paloma Atencia-Linares) and “permissive” (Dominic McIver Lopes) responses to sceptical orthodoxy, and raise challenges for both. The restrictive version arguably divides what does and does not count as strictly photographic in arbitrary ways; the permissive version rules in images that are not obviously photographs, and faces two difficulties individuating photographs. I conclude by noting several questions that need to be considered more fully before new theory has the upper hand over orthodoxy. These concern its ability to account for photography’s epistemic capacities, the extent to which it constitutes an advance over non-sceptical orthodoxy (notably, Kendall Walton), and whether new theorists have yet to be new enough when it comes to photographic agency.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BH Aesthetics
T Technology > TR Photography
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Photography -- Philosophy, Photography, Artistic
Journal or Publication Title: Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ISSN: 0021-8529
Official Date: 3 November 2017
Dates:
DateEvent
3 November 2017Published
22 November 2016Accepted
Volume: 75
Number: 4
Page Range: pp. 439-452
DOI: 10.1111/jaac.12404
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Related URLs:
  • Publisher

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us