Kant's Theory of Imagination

Kant's Theory of Imagination PDF Author: Sarah L. Gibbons
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780198240419
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
This book departs from much of the scholarship on Kant by demonstrating the centrality of imagination to Kant's philosophy as a whole. For Kant, cognition and experience are simultaneously passive and active, thought and sensed, free and unfree. These dualisms are often considered unfortunate byproducts of his system. Sarah Gibbons, however, shows that imagination performs a vital function in 'bridging gaps' between the different elements of cognition and experience. Thus, the role imagination plays in Kant's works expresses his fundamental insight into the complexity of cognition for finite rational beings such as ourselves. Dr Gibbons begins with an interpretation of synthesis which shows it to be a broader activity than most accounts suggest. Examining the first Critique, she presents a reading of the Transcendental Deduction and the chapter on Schematism that spells out the extraconceptual activities of imagination essential to cognition. This account of imagination is built upon in The Critique of Judgment, where Kant elaborates its role in characterizing the subjective conditions of judgement. Gibbons highlights the cooperation of imagination and reason; she shows that on Kant's account, human beings pursue reason's ideal ends through the provisional and continuing attempt to articulate them. This attempt involves an appeal to a shared social and historical imagination - thus, a full characterization of the subjective conditions of judgement must include an account of the interaction between imagination and reason.

Kant and the Power of Imagination

Kant and the Power of Imagination PDF Author: Jane Kneller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139462172
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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Book Description
In this book Jane Kneller focuses on the role of imagination as a creative power in Kant's aesthetics and in his overall philosophical enterprise. She analyzes Kant's account of imaginative freedom and the relation between imaginative free play and human social and moral development, showing various ways in which his aesthetics of disinterested reflection produce moral interests. She situates these aspects of his aesthetic theory within the context of German aesthetics of the eighteenth century, arguing that Kant's contribution is a bridge between early theories of aesthetic moral education and the early Romanticism of the last decade of that century. In so doing, her book brings the two most important German philosophers of Enlightenment and Romanticism, Kant and Novalis, into dialogue. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers in both Kant studies and German philosophy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Imagination and Interpretation in Kant

Imagination and Interpretation in Kant PDF Author: Rudolf A. Makkreel
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226502775
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
In this illuminating study of Kant's theory of imagination and its role in interpretation, Rudolf A. Makkreel argues against the commonly held notion that Kant's transcendental philosophy is incompatible with hermeneutics. The charge that Kant's foundational philosophy is inadequate to the task of interpretation can be rebutted, explains Makkreel, if we fully understand the role of imagination in his work. In identifying this role, Makkreel also reevaluates the relationship among Kant's discussions of the feeling of life, common sense, and the purposiveness of history.

Seeing More

Seeing More PDF Author: Samantha Matherne
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198898290
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Samantha Matherne defends a systematic interpretation of the philosopher Immanuel Kant's theory of imagination. To this end, she offers an account of what kind of mental capacity Kant takes imagination to be in general, as well as an account of the way in which we use this capacity in theoretical, aesthetic, and practical contexts. In contrast with more traditional theories of imagination, as a kind of fantasy that we exercise only in relation to objects that are not real or not present, Matherne argues that Kant theorizes imagination as something that we exercise just as much in relation to objects that are real and present. Thus she attributes to Kant a view of imagining as something that pervades our lives. In order to bring out this pervasiveness, Matherne explores Kant's account of how we exercise our imagination in perception, ordinary experience, the appreciation of beauty and sublimity, the production of art, the pursuit of happiness, and the pursuit of morality. However, she also argues that Kant's analysis of this wide range of phenomena is underwritten by a unified theory of what imagination is, as a remarkably flexible cognitive capacity that we can exercise in constrained and creative, playful and serious ways.

The Imagination in German Idealism and Romanticism

The Imagination in German Idealism and Romanticism PDF Author: Gerad Gentry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107197708
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Explores imagination and human rationality in a crucial period of philosophy, from hermeneutics and transcendental logic to ethics and aesthetics.

Seeing More

Seeing More PDF Author: Samantha Matherne
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198898282
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
There is a long-standing tradition in philosophy that defines imagination as engaging with things that are not real or present; as a kind of fantasy. Immanuel Kant offered an original theory of imagination as something that shapes our encounters with what is real, present, and pervades our lives. This book brings this theory of imagining to light.

Beauty, Ugliness and the Free Play of Imagination

Beauty, Ugliness and the Free Play of Imagination PDF Author: Mojca Küplen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319198998
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
This book presents a solution to the problem known in philosophical aesthetics as the paradox of ugliness, namely, how an object that is displeasing can retain our attention and be greatly appreciated. It does this by exploring and refining the most sophisticated and thoroughly worked out theoretical framework of philosophical aesthetics, Kant’s theory of taste, which was put forward in part one of the Critique of the Power of Judgment. The book explores the possibility of incorporating ugliness, a negative aesthetic concept, into the overall Kantian aesthetic picture. It addresses a debate of the last two decades over whether Kant's aesthetics should allow for a pure aesthetic judgment of ugliness. The book critically reviews the main interpretations of Kant’s central notion of the free play of imagination and understanding and offers a new interpretation of free play, one that allows for the possibility of a disharmonious state of mind and ugliness. In addition, the book also applies an interpretation of ugliness in Kant’s aesthetics to resolve certain issues that have been raised in contemporary aesthetics, namely the possibility of appreciating artistic and natural ugliness and the role of disgust in artistic representation. Offering a theoretical and practical analysis of different kinds of negative aesthetic experiences, this book will help readers acquire a better understanding of his or her own evaluative processes, which may be helpful in coping with complex aesthetic experiences. Readers will gain unique insight into how ugliness can be offensive, yet, at the same time, fascinating, interesting and captivating.

Heidegger’s Interpretation of Kant

Heidegger’s Interpretation of Kant PDF Author: M. Weatherston
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230597343
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Is there any justification for Heidegger's famous 'violence' against Kant's philosophy? An independent assessment of the worth of Heidegger's argument is also made all the more pertinent by the evident misgivings Heidegger had about his interpretation of Kant. We must ask of Heidegger's interpretation of Kant: 1) Is this good Kant? and 2) Is this good Heidegger?

Imagination in Kant's Critical Philosophy

Imagination in Kant's Critical Philosophy PDF Author: Michael L. Thompson
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 9783110274660
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Kant s view of the imagination is surrounded by one of the most salient and obscure discussions onhis critical philosophy. Due to revisions and emendations and a seeming change in doctrine from the first to the third Critique, Kant s considered view of the imagination remains unclear. This collection of essays from Kant scholars illuminates the various treatments of imagination through its development in Kant s critical works. Thereby invaluable research is given on a topic that is now facing new interest amongst philosophers."

Kant's Power of Imagination

Kant's Power of Imagination PDF Author: Rolf-Peter Horstmann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316997774
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
This Element is a study of how the power of imagination is, according to Kant, supposed to contribute to cognition. It is meant to be an immanent and a reconstructive endeavor, relying solely on Kant's own resources when he tries to determine what material, faculties, and operations are necessary for cognition of objects. The main discourse is divided into two sections. The first deals with Kant's views concerning the power of imagination as outlined in the A- and B- edition of the Critique of Pure Reason. The second focuses on the power of imagination in the first part of the Critique of Judgment.