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Imagination |
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Imagination (Latin, ‘forming images’) is the (supposed) faculty by which we acquire knowledge of non-actual possibilities. Just as I know that bananas are actually yellow by the faculty of sight, so I know that it is possible for bananas to be purple by the faculty of imagination. I know that bananas could be purple because I can imagine a purple banana.
But what is it to imagine a purple banana? Imagination seems to involve forming sensory images; imagining a purple banana seems to involve forming a sensory image as of a purple banana.
However, imagination must involve more than merely forming sensory images. After all, one may form an image of exactly the same sort when imagining a purple banana and imagining hallucinating a purple banana. One is obviously imagining something different when one imagines a purple banana and when one imagines hallucinating a purple banana, but one may form an image of exactly the same type when doing these different things. So more than merely forming a sensory image is involved in imagining these things.
The extra element involved seems to be a cognitive supposition. When one imagines a purple banana, one forms a certain sensory image and then supposes that it is a purple banana. When one imagines hallucinating a purple banana, one forms a certain sensory image and then supposes that it is an experience as of an object which does not in fact exist. So imagination seems to involve both forming sensory images and making cognitive suppositions. AJ
See also actual; modality. |
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