The Discovery of the Imagination

In: Constellations: an international journal of critical and democratic theory, Band 1, Heft 2, S. 183-213

Abstract

Philosophical reflections are offered on the nature of imagination via a reading of Aristotle's De Anima, with reference to the way in which Western philosophy has marginalized imagination vis-a-vis reason. It is shown that Aristotle was the first to "discover" the imagination; Immanuel Kant was the next thinker to pose the question of the imagination, & Martin Heidegger & Maurice Merleau-Ponty did much to revive debate over the distinction between the real & the imaginary. It is concluded that Aristotle's discovery effectively puts into question both the theory of the determination of being & that of the determination of knowledge. W. Howard