These collected studies on the philosophy of the image offer the fundamental insight that images alone make the artificial presence of things possible. Images present things as exclusively visible, released from the laws of physics. Taking this idea as his point of departure, Wiesing provides an overview of the fundamental positions in contemporary image studies. He describes the use of images as signs from a phenomenological perspective, reconstructs Plato's concept of mimesis by way of the canon of images it presupposes, and demonstrates the special relevance of extreme types of images— virtual reality, desktop windows, or abstract photography—for the philosophical labor of the concept of the image. "In a unique way, Lambert Wiesing's work brings together three components that are not―or not yet―fully present in the North American world of the humanities: media studies, "image research," and a philosophical reflection in the tradition of Husserl's phenomenology." ―Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht,Stanford University Lambert Wiesing is Professor of Comparative Picture Theory and Phenomenology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. His most recent book is Die Sichtbarkeit des Bildes (2008).