Thinking in Images - by Piotr Kozak (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

What does it mean to think with images? There is a well-established tradition of studying thought processes through the nature of language, and we know much more about thinking with language than about thinking with images. Piotr Kozak takes an important step towards rectifying this position.

Presenting a unified theory of different types of images, such as diagrams, maps, technical drawings and photographs, Kozak argues that images provide a genuine and autonomous form of content and knowledge. In contrast to the propositional view of thinking and resemblance-based accounts, he puts forward a measurement-theoretic account of images as operations that exemplify measures, revealing the outcomes of measurement operations performed on a depicted situation. Bringing together insights from philosophy of science, picture-theory, cognitive science and cognitive psychology, this book demonstrates that we can only understand what an image is if we truly understand the role they play in our thought processes, challenging the prevailing view that the utility of images is only instrumental and cognitively inferior.

Review Quotes

Thinking in Images demonstrates the cognitive role of images, or iconic representations, in rational thinking. Kozak responds to skeptics by showing that images are indispensable for thinking as measuring devices, even if they are not propositional. Drawing on measurement theory, he provides a novel account of image contents.
Marcin Milkowski, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

How many windows are in your home? One way to answer is to imagine your home and count the windows. Such imagistic thinking abounds in art and science, but how does it work? Thinking in Images answers by arguing images are measuring devices - less like sentences and more like rulers.
Ben Blumson, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Piotr Kozak's book is the first systematic exploration of the far-reaching consequences of imagistic cognition: our ability to use mental imagery in our thinking and problem-solving. I expect - and certainly hope - that it will be the go-to book on imagistic cognition in the years to come.
Bence Nanay, Professor of Philosophical Psychology, University of Antwerp, Belgium

About the Author

Piotr Kozak is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Bialystok, Poland.