Visual Reasoning: I see what you mean

Abstract

This paper is a study of examples of visual reasoning from Wittgenstein. There are two key issues. First, to what extent are some lexical concepts predicated on visual examples? Cases of ostensively defined nouns such as ‘red’ are less interesting in this context than cognitive terms such as ‘to show’ [proof]. Second, I identify examples where an unclear relationship subsists between the visual and the lexical, including visual concepts with fuzzy boundaries that are normally supposed to be the province of lexical concepts. The target is the preconception that concepts may be comprehensively described either visually or lexically and to problematize the discrimination between metaphorical and nonmetaphorical communication.