Imagination plays a crucial role in our lives. We depend on our imaginative capacity for planning our future, engaging with fiction, relating empathically to others, playing games, and interacting with the possible. It also plays a central role in philosophical practices. Without imagination, thought experiments, moral theorizing, and modal reasoning would not be possible. Although the discussion about imagination has captivated philosophers for centuries, recent decades have witnessed a renewed surge of interest in its nature and function. In this course, by exploring classical and contemporary philosophical perspectives, we will consider key issues related to imagination such as: What is the nature of mental imagery? How to define imagination as distinct from perception, belief, memory and dreaming? Is the capacity for imagination necessary for creativity? What is the role played by imagination in our understanding of reality?
- Teacher: ndolcini, Nevia Dolcini