Imagine an Imageless Imagination
Abstract
A trend in contemporary discussion pertaining to the imagination has attempted to theoretically conceptualise a type of qualia-free imagination, commonly referred to as propositional imagination. This paper argues that an act of imagination cannot be an act of imagination without both cognitive and sensory phenomenology. Both sensory and cognitive phenomenology play an important role in “fixing” the content of imaginative thoughts. Sensory phenomenology is what distinguishes imagination as an act of imagination; it is what sets imagination apart from other attitudinal mental states, such as the attitudinal mental state of supposing. Cognitive phenomenology is both proprietary and individuative to conscious thoughts, including imaginings. Each imagining takes as part of its content a distinctive kind of cognitive phenomenology which allows us to identify, differentiate and understand the particular content of a given imagining. I conclude that a type of qualia-free imagination is not, in fact, conceivable – theoretically or otherwise. Propositional imagination has phenomenology.
Publication date
2017-11-10Published version
https://doi.org/10.18745/th.19514Other links
http://hdl.handle.net/2299/19514Metadata
Show full item recordRelated items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
On Virtuality and the aesthetics of spectacle: Nationalist Imaginations of Mthwakazi and its passions of semblance : Nationalist Imaginations of Mthwakazi and its passions of semblance
Mhlanga, Brilliant; Mpofu, Mandlenkosi (2017-08-14)Abstract Social networking and the individuated privacy of the virtual space have emerged as new forms of conflating social identities and free speech for most subaltern communities. While it is clearly accepted that the ... -
From Crisis to Choice: Re-imagining the future in shrinking cities
Schlappa, Hans; Neill, William, B.V. (URBACT Secretariat, Paris, 2013-05)This report builds on current research and practice concerned with the exploration of causes and consequences of urban shrinkage in Europe. It has been informed by a number of workshops with policy makers, politicians and ... -
Real imagined communities: : National narratives and the globalization of design history
Fallan, Kjetil; Lees-Maffei, Grace (2016-01-01)The nation state is no longer the only socio-cultural or political-economic unit forming our identities and experiences, if it ever was, although national and regional histories of design have demonstrated cogent frameworks ...