Abstract
What do we see in a mirror? There is an ongoing debate over whether mirrors present us with images of objects or whether we see, through the mirror, the objects themselves. Roberto Casati has recently argued that there is a categorical difference between images and mirror reflections. His argument depends on the observation that mirrors, but not paintings, are sensitive to changes in the observer’s perspective. In our paper we scrutinize Casati’s argument and present a modal argument that shows that it cannot establish this conclusion. We suggest that Casati’s line of reasoning suffers from the fact that he does not take dynamic images – that is, images that change over time – into account.
Highlights
What do we see in a mirror? There is an ongoing debate over whether mirrors present us with images of objects or whether we see, through the mirror, the objects themselves
Zeno Vendler, for one, endorses both the spirit and the letter of Leonardo’s claim: ‘We see [mirror images], yet they are nothing in the physical world
The mirror image of my face appears behind the mirror, yet there is nothing there but bricks.’2
Summary
What do we see in a mirror? There is an ongoing debate over whether mirrors present us with images of objects or whether we see, through the mirror, the objects themselves. They multiply the entities that are there to be seen.4 According to the Unifiers, on the other hand, what we see in mirrors are the reflected objects themselves.
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