The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination

503 Pages·2016·2.89 MB·English

by  Amy Kind

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF

PHILOSOPHY OF IMAGINATION

Imagination occupies a central place in philosophy, going back to Aristotle. However,
following a period of relative neglect there has been an explosion of interest in imagination

in the past two decades as philosophers examine the role of imagination in debates about the
mind, cognition, ethics, and aesthetics, as well as epistemology, science, and mathematics.
This outstanding Handbook contains over thirty specially commissioned chapters by leading

philosophers organized into six clear sections examining the most important aspects of the
philosophy of imagination, including:

(cid:1) Imagination in historical context: Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Husserl, and Sartre

(cid:1) What is imagination? The relation between imagination and mental imagery; imagination

contrasted with perception, memory, and dreaming

(cid:1) Imagination in aesthetics: imagination and our engagement with music, art, and fiction;
and the problems of fictional emotions
(cid:1) Imagination in philosophy of mind and cognitive science: “imaginative resistance,”

imagination and creativity, the self, action, child development, and animal cognition
(cid:1) Imaginationinethicsandpoliticalphilosophy,includingtheconceptof“moralimagination”
andempathy
(cid:1) Imagination in epistemology and philosophy of science, including learning, thought
experiments, scientific modeling, and mathematics.
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination is essential reading for students and
researchers in philosophy of mind and psychology, aesthetics, and ethics. It will also be a
valuable resource for those in related disciplines such as psychology and art.

Amy Kind is Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College, USA. She is editor
ofPhilosophyofMindinthe TwentiethandTwenty FirstCenturies,volume 6ofTheHistory ofthe

Philosophy of Mind (Routledge, forthcoming), and with Peter Kung she is editor of the

forthcoming collection Knowledge Through Imagination.
ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOKS IN PHILOSOPHY

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problems, themes, thinkers, and recent developments in research.
Allchaptersforeachvolumearespeciallycommissioned,andwrittenbyleadingscholarsin
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Available:

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF EMBODIED COGNITION
Edited by Lawrence Shapiro

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF NEOPLATONISM

Edited by Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva Griffin

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY OF
RELIGION
Edited by Graham Oppy

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF WELL BEING
Edited by Guy Fletcher

Forthcoming:
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE STOIC TRADITION
Edited by John Sellars

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF COLOUR
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THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIODIVERSITY

Edited by Justin Garson, Anya Plutynski, and Sahotra Sarkar

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL MIND
Edited by Julian Kiverstein
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF COLLECTIVE INTENTIONALITY
Edited by Marija Jankovic and Kirk Ludwig

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF BRENTANO AND
THE BRENTANO SCHOOL

Edited by Uriah Kriegel
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF EPISTEMIC CONTEXTUALISM

Edited by Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF EVOLUTION AND PHILOSOPHY

Edited by Richard Joyce

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF MODALITY
Edited by Otávio Bueno and Scott Shalkowski
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY
OF ECONOMICS
Edited by Julian Reiss and Conrad Heilmann

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF LIBERTARIANISM
Edited by Jason Brennan, Bas van der Vossen, and David Schmidtz

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF METAETHICS
Edited by Tristram McPherson and David Plunkett

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY

OF INFORMATION

Edited by Luciano Floridi
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN

Edited by Jennifer Corns

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF EMPATHY
Edited by Heidi Maibom
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY
OF ANIMAL MINDS
Edited by Kristin Andrews and Jacob Beck

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF EPISTEMIC INJUSTICE
Edited by Ian James Kidd, José Medina, and Gaile Pohlhaus

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF MECHANISMS

Edited by Stuart Glennan and Phyllis Ilari

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF MORAL EPISTEMOLOGY
Edited by Karen Jones, Mark Timmons, and Aaron Zimmerman
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PANPSYCHISM
Edited by William Seager

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF TEMPORAL
EXPERIENCE

Edited by Ian Philips
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF SCIENTIFIC REALISM

Edited by Juha Saatsi

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF MEMORY

Edited by Sven Bernecker and Kourken Michaelian

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE
OF ADDICTION
Edited by Hanna Pickard and Serge Ahmed

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY
OF EMERGENCE

Edited by Robin Hendry, Sophie Gibb, and Tom Lancaster
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF EUROPE

Edited by Darian Meacham and Nicolas de Warren
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF
CHILDHOOD AND CHILDREN

Edited by Jurgen De Wispelaere, Gideon Calder, and Anca Gheaus

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF APPLIED EPISTEMOLOGY
Edited by James Chase and David Coady

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVIL

Edited by Thomas Nys and Stephen de Wijze

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE CITY
Edited by Sharon Meagher
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF
DISCRIMINATION AND EQUALITY
Edited by Kasper Lippert Rasmussen

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY
OF EVIDENCE

Edited by Trent Dougherty and Maria Lasonen Aarnio

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY

OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Edited by Alex Broadbent and Sridhar Venkatapuram
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY
OF PATERNALISM

Edited by Kalle Grill and Jason Hanna

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF END OF LIFE ETHICS

Edited by John Davis
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF NEUROETHICS

Edited by Syd Johnson and Karen S. Rommelfanger

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL EPISTEMOLOGY

Edited by Miranda Fricker, Peter J. Graham, David Henderson,
Nikolaj Pedersen, and Jeremy Wyatt

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF VIRTUE EPISTEMOLOGY
Edited by Heather D. Battaly
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THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK

OF PHILOSOPHY OF

IMAGINATION

Edited by Amy Kind
Firstpublished2016

byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN

andbyRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
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©2016AmyKind,editorialandselectionmatter;individualchapters,thecontributors
TherightofAmyKindtobeidentifiedastheauthoroftheeditorialmaterial,andofthe
authorsfortheirindividualchapters,hasbeenassertedinaccordancewithsections77and78

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LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
TheRoutledgehandbookofphilosophyofimagination/editedbyAmyKind.--1[edition].
pagescm.--(Routledgehandbooksinphilosophy)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-415-73948-1(hardback:alk.paper)--ISBN978-1-315-65790-5(e-book)
1.Imagination(Philosophy)I.Kind,Amy,editor.

B105.I49R682016
128’.3--dc23
2015024465

ISBN:978-0-415-73948-1(hbk)

ISBN:978-1-315-65790-5(ebk)

TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
CONTENTS

List of illustrations xiii

List of contributors xiv
Acknowledgment xix

Introduction: Exploring imagination 1
Amy Kind

PARTI
Historical treatments of imagination 13

1 Aristotle on phantasia 15
Deborah K.W. Modrak

2 Descartes 27
Dennis L. Sepper

3 Hume 40
Fabian Dorsch

4 Kant’s theory of the imagination 55
Samantha Matherne

5 Husserl 69
Julia Jansen

6 Sartre 82

Robert Hopkins

PARTII

Contemporary discussions of imagination 95
7 Imagination and mental imagery 97

Dominic Gregory