Philosophical Theories of Imagination II

monograficzne
ogólnouniwersyteckie

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Celem kursu jest historyczna rekonstrukcja głównych nowożytnych (zwłaszcza wpisujących się w idealizm transcendentalny oraz Romantyzm) i współczesnych (fenomenologia, psychoanaliza, pragmatyzm, postmodernizm) filozoficznych koncepcji wyobraźni. Rekonstrukcja ta akcentować będzie różne formy „najbardziej tajemniczej władzy ludzkiego umysłu takie jak: wizualizacja, pretendowanie, domniemywanie, cielesne bądź kinestetyczne zaangażowanie, czy też szczególny rodzaj rozumienia. Motywami wiodącymi prezentacji będą: 1. ambiwalentny status poznawczy wyobraźni; 2. ontologiczny status obrazów, czy szerzej – tego, co wyobrażeniowe; 3. wyobraźnia jako medium subiektywnego doświadczenia - analiza sposobów, na jakie dzięki wyobraźni doświadczamy siebie samych oraz otaczającej nas rzeczywistoości; 4.etyczne i moralne znaczenie wyobraźni.

The position of the category of imagination in philosophical tradition is ambiguous. There is no agreement on what is its role and place in the architecture of the human mind. The most extreme philosophical perspectives saw in it either the lowest of all cognitive powers (e.g. Plato) or the most fundamental faculty serving as the basis for all other faculties, as the most basic condition of possibility of any kind of experience (e.g. Schelling). Consequently, there is no agreement what exactly should be understood by this category. There are at least few different meanings and some of them differ quite radically. The dominant ones associate it with visualizing (a kind of seeing, a quasi-seeing) and suggest that imagination is the power of producing/reproducing images. But even the status of the latters is notoriously unclear. Are they something real and objective or rather another name of relational nature of consciousness? Or maybe they simply are the effects of fundamental mistaking of what is unreal for what is real? If that is the case - what is the nature of this mistaking and what kind of meaning should be ascribed to this opposition? If imagination puts ourselves into the domain of the unreal does it necessarily mean it leads, by the same token, to the fictionalization of subjectivity? The other conceptions try to free imagination from the constraints of quasi-sensory representations and present it under the forms of: pretending, supposing, bodily or kinesthetic engagement or specific form of understanding, namely that which is concerned with envisioning possibilities inscribed into the reality.

The aim of the course is the historical presentation of the main modern (especially the ones created under the umbrella of transcendental idealism and Romanticism) and contemporary (phenomenology, psychoanalysis, pragmatism, postmodernism) philosophical conceptions of imagination along with accentuation of different forms of the “most mysterious” power of human mind.

The leading motives of our analysis will be

1) the ambivalent cognitive role of imagination

2) ontological status of the imaginary/images

3) imagination as the medium of subjective experience – analysis of the ways in which we experience ourselves and reality around us by means of/ or through imagination

It seems that:

- it often play a quite significant role in shaping our sense of being an individual

- it play a significant role in synthesizing the course of our experience, both personal and cognitive

- it seems to play a crucial role in maintaining human sense of being autonomous – in this sense it can be seen as a basic means of subjective freedom

- there is no doubt it enlightens our position in the world – both material/physical and intersubjective – by facing us with practical possibilities of acting and behaving:

→ “what I can be”; “what could I be”; “what can I do”; “I acted this way but I could otherwise”; even purely ethical questions such as famous Kantian: “What I ought to do?” seem to involve the work of imagination

4) ethical or moral importance of imagination

E. Brann, The World of Imagination: Sum and Substance,

M. Warnock, Imagination,

A. White, The Language of Imagination,

R. Kearney, Poetics of Imagining

Knowledge:

- has the broad knowledge of ambiguous position of imagination in the philosophical tradition;

- has the knowledge of the basic meanings of the category of imagination derived from the history of philosophy;

- has the well-structured knowledge about possible roles played by the faculty of imagination in different kinds of human experience;

- has deepened knowledge of the differences and relations between imagination and other cognitive powers of human being;

- has the broad knowledge and deeper understanding of particular philosophical conception and is able to contrast it with other conceptions;

- has the broad knowledge of the norms constituting and regulating social structures and institutions as well as of their sources, changes and ways of shaping social interactions;

- has the broad knowledge of the interdependence between philosophical ideas and cultural changes and of the role philosophical ideas play in creation of cultural institutions and artifacts;

Abilities:

After the course student:

- analyses texts and arguments concerning the subject of the seminar;

- prepares argumentation on the relevant subject and is able to defend his/her own perspective;

- creatively uses his philosophical and methodological knowledge by formulating hypotheses and creating critical arguments;

- formulate and re-construct arguments taken from different philosophical perspectives being aware of the differences and similarities between these perspectives;

- is able to identify and analyze in detail controversies and problems connected with the category of imagination;

- has ability of comparative analysis of different perspectives on the main problems connected with the category of imagination;

- explains differences between imagination and mental phenomena closely related to imagination as well as indicates imaginative components of those phenomena;

Social competence:

After the course student:

- has ability to cooperate with the group;

- takes and initiates research activities, is able to plan and organise their course;

- is reliable, considerate and engaged in planning and proceeding in research activities;

- has deeper understanding and sensitivity for different imaginative components of cultural phenomena;

- is fully aware of the value and cultural importance of imagination.

Active participation in the class and/or written essay