REPRESENTATION. - It is the term for a cognitive act when this is not immediately apprehensive and presentative of the reality known (it corresponds to the scholastic term species expressa).

R. is a generic term applicable to the image, to the concept (v.), to the idea (v.). The function, importance, and value attributed to r. differ in the various theories of knowledge (v.). According to a theory that dominates much of modern philosophy, knowledge always and only terminates in r.; from this, then, according to some (e.g., Descartes, Locke, Kant, positivism; v. these entries) one should infer the existence of realities in themselves; while for others, e.g., Schopenhauer (v.), "the world is my r." (Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, I, § 3). According to other philosophies (Galluppi, Husserl, some iconoclasts), on the other hand, knowledge is originally apprehension or presence of a reality, and r. is only the means by which in certain cases (even if in most cases) we come to know realities not immediately present.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: P. Martinetti, Introduzione alla metafisica, 2nd ed., Milan 1929, pp. 37-169; J. de Tonnebec, La critique de la connaissance, Paris 1929, pp. 1-42; F. Morandini, Logica maior, 2nd ed., Rome 1951, pp. 36-41.

Sofia Vanni Rovighi

@incollection{ec10_rappresentazione, author = {Vanni, Rovighi Sofia}, title = {Rappresentazione}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {532--533}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/rappresentazione} }

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Representation

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