DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1173#0018
THE DIFFICULTY OF REPRESENTATION
We have often heard it said that thoughts are things,
and there are many among us who are persuaded of the
truth of this statement. Yet very few of us have any
clear idea as to what kind of thing a thought is, and the
object of this little book is to help us to conceive this.
There are some serious difficulties in our way, for our
conception of space is limited to three dimensions, and
when we attempt to make a drawing we practically limit
ourselves to two. In reality the presentation even of
ordinary three-dimensional objects is seriously defective,
for scarcely a line or angle in our drawing is accurately
shown. If a road crosses the picture, the part in the
foreground must be represented as enormously wider than
that in the background, although in reality the width is
unchanged. If a house is to be drawn, the right angles
at its corners must be shown as acute or obtuse as the
case may be, but hardly ever as they actually are. In
fact, we draw everything not as it is but as it appears,
and the effort of the artist is by a skilful arrangement
of lines upon a flat surface to convey to the eye an
impression which shall recall that made by a three-
dimensional object.
It is possible to do this only because similar objects
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We have often heard it said that thoughts are things,
and there are many among us who are persuaded of the
truth of this statement. Yet very few of us have any
clear idea as to what kind of thing a thought is, and the
object of this little book is to help us to conceive this.
There are some serious difficulties in our way, for our
conception of space is limited to three dimensions, and
when we attempt to make a drawing we practically limit
ourselves to two. In reality the presentation even of
ordinary three-dimensional objects is seriously defective,
for scarcely a line or angle in our drawing is accurately
shown. If a road crosses the picture, the part in the
foreground must be represented as enormously wider than
that in the background, although in reality the width is
unchanged. If a house is to be drawn, the right angles
at its corners must be shown as acute or obtuse as the
case may be, but hardly ever as they actually are. In
fact, we draw everything not as it is but as it appears,
and the effort of the artist is by a skilful arrangement
of lines upon a flat surface to convey to the eye an
impression which shall recall that made by a three-
dimensional object.
It is possible to do this only because similar objects
16