Abstract

This work attempts to provide a model of representation in which the act of representing is taken as the basic unit of analysis. It also attempts to show how such a model can be applied in a realist theory of knowledge by using it to answer some of the anti-realist arguments of Richard Rorty and Hilary Putnam. ;In representing we connect the various ways in which we interact with the world. Representing is an activity by which we organize and integrate these interactions. Only when representations are seen as acts can we see how it is possible for us to represent. ;I argue that neither the objects that we use to represent, such as symbols or languages; nor the images that we produce in acts of representing; nor the concepts which are the potentials that lie behind acts of representing can be taken as representations themselves. Symbols activate certain of our concepts and get us to represent in certain ways, rather than being representations themselves. Concepts are the physically and neurologically embodied potentials for entering into acts of representing; they are not themselves representations. ;Likewise, I argue that our images and perceptions cannot represent in virtue of the similarity of their properties to the world. Properties, such as redness, are simply the felt character of our particular modes of interaction with the world. The content of our acts of representing lies in the connections they make between these properties, not in the properties themselves. ;I argue that this way of seeing representation allows particular representations from particular perspectives to be objective. While the particular properties within a representation are tied to the perspective of representation, the connections made within the act of representing can be caused by the object interacted with, and not by the perspective. ;When representing is seen as a process of interaction with the world, representations become bridges to the world instead of veils that keep us from it, and perspectives become windows on the world instead of windowless rooms