Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-w7rtg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-20T12:25:49.337Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Images, Reality And Truth: Some Philosophical Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Santiago Sia
Santiago Sia*
Affiliation:
Milltown Park Sandford Road, Ranelagh Dublin 6, Dublin 6 Ireland
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Developments in technology and communications have enhanced the status and role of imaging. They have resulted not just in the excellent quality of images but also in the speed and ease of distributing or communicating them. But with the welcome advances have also come undesirable and even threatening consequences for both individuals and society generally. These have presented challenges and issues which need to be addressed urgently. The essay considers these from a philosophical perspective. Focusing first on the tension between image and reality, it provides a philosophical background to the debate. It then discusses the question of truth and the related issues of the right to know, freedom of speech and privacy. It provides the foundation for these fundamental rights but also examines the tensions or conflicts in their exercise. The essay then offers and discusses some guidelines to deal with these challenges and issues; namely, the criteria of appropriateness and acceptability and the importance of accountability. It suggests that in addition, given the frailty of human nature and the lessons of history, society also needs the support of laws and policies.

Keywords

Imagingtruthright to knowfreedom of speechprivacy
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 96 , Issue 1063 , May 2015 , pp. 295 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 The Dominican Council

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The tremendous development in and the widespread use of information technology generally and of the internet particularly would have been unbelievable a few years ago.

2 Cf. Fangerau, Heiner et.al. (eds.), Medical Imaging and Philosophy: Challenges, Reflections and Actions (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2012)Google Scholar.

3 This is well exemplified by the role that Facebook played in effecting change during the Spring revolution in the Arab world.

4 An example of this—from a personal point of view—is the breathtaking photography in the film Samsara. It was done in such a way that it elicited a range of emotions merely—in the absence of any dialogue—from watching it and listening to the accompanying music.

5 At the time of the writing of this essay, the media had been giving full coverage to the widespread disturbances prompted by the film—and more recently, a cartoon published in a French paper—which purportedly insults the prophet Mohammed and constant updates on the situation following the publication and dissemination of specified photos of members of the British royal family.

6 This school of thought has to be distinguished from another school which holds that humans have innate ideas, which is sometimes associated with Plato who maintains that the knowing process entails “remembering” what we already know.

7 Even the telling of facts as facts involves a selection and judgment on the part of the speaker. For example, the citing of a date as 17 March 1970 already indicates that one has chosen to refer to it using the Arabic/Christian preference for listing dates rather than another system. This is why there is much truth in the claim that whatever is said is not just informing us but also telling us something about the speaker.

8 The “correspondence criterion” of truth can be complemented by the “coherence criterion” in this perspective inasmuch as it pays particular attention to the content of knowledge and the role of the knower.

9 This point is reminiscent of, but not equivalent to, Kant's “reality itself vs. reality as it appears to us” distinction.

10 It will be noted that there will always be difficulties in listing absolute truths. But this difficulty does not contradict the claim that there are absolutes precisely because there must be absolutes. Otherwise, relative truths cannot be considered relative either.

11 Sometimes this happens because of the status given to the photos in fashion magazines—and now with images on the internet.

12 They have become particularly relevant in light of the Levenson Inquiry in England over phone-hacking and the call for inquiries into the handling of the Twitter information by Radio Telefis Eireann in Ireland in two of its programmes during the presidential campaign. There is also the ongoing dispute regarding the sharing of data contained in the electronic files of various agencies and even in internet servers for various uses. There have also been the legal issues connected with WikiLeaks.

13 Those who print or communicate false or misleading information seem to ignore the fact that despite an apology or correction in a later edition or broadcast, one cannot really retrieve the previous information since the readers and the audience do not always remain the same. Thus, vigilance and sensitivity are paramount from the start.

14 A related phrase that is in currency these days is “transparency” in all one's dealings.

15 For Aquinas, the ultimate end of human beings is communio, participation in the very nature of the Creator.

16 It is for this reason that one can rightfully assert everyone's right to education.

17 A recent controversy in this regard is a piece of Facebook's facial-recognition technology, the so-called “tag suggest” feature, in Europe. Opposed due to privacy laws, Facebook has had to switch it off in the meantime. Previously, there had been unease over the technology developed by Google Earth over the mapping of streets.

18 Debates about, and tensions over, this particular issue has been heightened and broadened because of developments with WikiLeaks.

19 This claim can still be asserted even if one takes the religious view that it is a gift from the Creator.

20 These questions have certainly come to the fore recently because of abuses in various areas and spheres which have been covered up by those in authority resorting to the alleged need for confidentiality.

21 See ‘Balancing Individual and Public Interests: A Philosophical Analysis,’ in my Ethical Contexts and Theoretical Issues: Essays in Ethical Thinking (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), pp. 87–96.

22 One wonders how those who distribute or upload pornography—when children are both the subject and possible recipients—can consider their action as appropriate. The same can be said about those who incite violence through these channels of communication.

23 Paparazzi, among others, really need to consider this point seriously.

24 This is not the same, however, as merely eliciting consent since a consensual decision does not always make the activity right.

25 One of the rather unwelcome developments of the facilities of Facebook or YouTube is the rush to upload practically anything, irrespective of the content of the image or information.

26 See ‘The Continuing Challenge of Ethics’ in my Ethical Contexts and Theoretical Issues, pp. 219–226, where I discuss the need for developing moral sense,