Kendall Walton

Kendall Lewis Walton
Born1939 (age 84–85)
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic
Main interests
Aesthetics, ontology, philosophy of language, fictionalism
Notable ideas
Make-believe theory of representation, ontological pretence, photographic transparency thesis
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Kendall Lewis Walton (born 1939) is an American philosopher, the Emeritus Charles Stevenson Collegiate Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Art and Design at the University of Michigan.[1] His work mainly deals with theoretical questions about the arts and issues of philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophy of language. His book Mimesis as Make Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts develops a theory of make-believe and uses it to understand the nature and varieties of representation in the arts.[2] He has also developed an account of photography as transparent, defending the idea that we see through photographs, much as we see through telescopes or mirrors,[3] and written extensively on pictorial representation, fiction and the emotions, the ontological status of fictional entities, the aesthetics of music, metaphor, and aesthetic value.

  1. ^ Philosophy faculty listing Archived 2011-08-04 at the Wayback Machine, Univ. of Michigan, retrieved 2010-03-06.
  2. ^ Walton, Kendall L. "Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts". Harvard University Press, 1990
  3. ^ 'Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism' in Walton, Kendall L., Marvelous Images: On Values and the Arts, Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 79-116