Talk:David Lewis (philosopher)

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Photo

What a disappointment. Seriously. I LOVED the other picture of David Lewis, he had a great beard a smile in his eyes and (it appears) relaxing in his backyard. Now we have this Black and White picture of what? A high school year book photo? Cmon. I was so inspired by the previous picture for years and always imagined myself growing old doing philosophy in my backyard just like I imagined David doing in his backyard (sans beard). It reflects the joy of his character so much better than the new one. I mean the man's pen name comes from his cat. He deserves and equally tender and spirited photo to be remembered by. Non-pegasus (talk) 02:42, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Aza24 I can't compare revisions on my phone. You reverted an edit in April due to a copyroght issue, were we removing the photo that had been here for years or a different one, if you can remember? Non-pegasus (talk) 02:45, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Non-pegasus, the image you are probably talking about was deleted at the commons, because there was no evidence it was in public domain (removed off this page by a different editor, see [1]). The image I removed had only been on the page for a few weeks, and it was deleted because it was simply pulled right from Britannica, also without a valid licensing tag.

Of course, we could re-upload either via our historical image tag (see the tag at File:Anthony Payne bust length.png, for example), but since a free one exists (the page's current image), that makes said rationale much weaker, and probably inadmissible. Aza24 (talk) 11:51, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Aza24 Thank you for your explanation, I understand but that's too bad. Non-pegasus (talk) 12:06, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Non-pegasus, I much agree that the former image (the one with the hat, I presume?) was much better and more characteristic. Let me mull over this, we could argue that the current one doesn't represent him at all—as a college student yearbook picture—so a copyrighted version would be vastly more ideal. Aza24 (talk) 12:09, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about any picture of wearing a hat actually hah. (Let me know where I might see it and I can see if it's in public domain?) Copy and paste this into your browser and scroll down to see the picture I'm referring to: https://blogs.princeton.edu/manuscripts/2016/04/25/david-k-lewis-and-analytical-philosophy/. This is the picture that had been used as the page's primary image for years. Note that this image from Princeton's site has a copyright with the name "Hugh Mellor." I am willing to bet this is the same "Hugh Mellor" who was a metaphysics professor at Cambridge and likely knew Lewis professionally, seeing as the image was taken apparently on Cambridge grounds (and not, as I assumed, in his backyard!). Unfortunately, Hugh Mellor is deceased. After browsing obituaries, there is no mention of his surviving family who may have managed his estate, including intellectual property (the memorials are beautiful, by the way, people really loved this teacher). I guess one could do a deeper dive and find an indirect way to obtain fair use, but personally it's not worth it, and I say that as someone who really loved that picture of David Lewis. Alas, I can live with this new pic. At least he's cute there ;). Thanks for considering it. I might change my mind and find a better pic. Another time, maybe. 🦄 Non-pegasus (talk) 23:15, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I see. Yes, that was the image I was thinking of (I somewhat mixed it up with Saul Kripke's picture, hence the hat). Aza24 (talk) 00:26, 28 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]