perspectival

Perspectival is an adjective describing anything related to perspective: the position from which something is considered and the conventions used to render or interpret that viewpoint. In art and visual representation, perspectival refers to methods for conveying depth and spatial relationships on a flat surface. Since the Renaissance, artists have used linear perspective, featuring a vanishing point, horizon line, and converging lines, to create a sense of three-dimensional space. More broadly, perspectival approaches may include alternative systems such as atmospheric perspective or multi-point perspective, and they influence composition, light, color, and viewer engagement.

In philosophy, perspectivalism is the view that knowledge, truth, or justification is dependent on the perspective from which a claim is made. This can entail that what counts as evidence or the significance of a claim varies with epistemic position, culture, or context. Perspectivalist accounts are often contrasted with objectivist or absolutist positions; some strands emphasize the existence of objective facts while insisting that access to them is mediated by perspective, whereas others align more with relativism or hermeneutics, stressing the role of interpretation and context in meaning.

In narrative and culture, the term is used to describe the filtering of information through a particular character, narrator, or viewpoint, producing a perspectival or biased frame. Modern media, literature, and film frequently employ perspectival devices to create partial knowledge, unreliable narration, or situated insight.

Etymology: from Latin perspectiva, from prospicere “to look outward.”