A groundbreaking examination of word and image through the lenses of modern art and Continental philosophy: "Probing and lucid" (Stephen H. Watson, University of Notre Dame).

Engagement with the image has played a decisive role in the formulation of the very idea of philosophy since Plato. Identifying pivotal moments in the history of philosophy, Dennis J. Schmidt develops the question of philosophy's regard of the image by considering painting―where the image most clearly calls attention to itself as an image.

Focusing on the philosophies of Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer and the art of Paul Klee, Schmidt pursues larger issues in the relationship between word, image, and truth. As he investigates alternative ways of thinking about truth through word and image, Schmidt shows how the form of art can indeed possess the capacity to change its viewers.