Schwartz

I understand what Meredith is saying about not being convinced of Schwartz's claim that pictures make the world, but I had a bit of a different understanding of his argument. I think this ties into ideas we have read about before concerning the idea that there is no "reality" out there independent of our perceptions because we can never see this reality without our particular lenses. I do not think that Schwartz is claiming that Picasso "created" how Stein looks in the same way that biology "created" how she looks. I think he's saying that our individual realities, or worlds, are shaped by the way that he has portrayed her. We may be affected by this portrayal and never look at her the same way again. He even says, "Picasso cannot paint Stein any way he pleases and still influence our perception and conception of her" (719). He claims that Picasso has to somehow "get it right" and our other ways of classifying help to determine what is right and what is not.

I think what is difficult about buying into this is that most of us still have this concept there there are two worlds: our world and the objective, scientific reality that exists independently from how we think about it. My attention was caught to one point when Schwartz remarks, "It is not clear why seeing the world through innocent eyes is seeing it more objectively or correctly than viewing it through the eyes of experience" (712). I think we have all spent a considerable amount of time discussing whether or not there is this objective reality, but Schwartz brings up the question of why we think objective reality is somehow superior to our individual perceptions of reality. I think it has something to do with the fact that we would all like something supposedly "concrete" to build off of (similar to perfect procedural). Still, I think that seeing the world through certain lenses can be beneficial. To look at an idea without bringing in any other ideas or experiences to help in interpreting it can lead to a somewhat flat understanding of the idea. Our perceptions help us see ideas for more than what they are, in a way. I think that Schwartz is saying something a bit different than this here, but it is something that came to mind.