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The Open University

Imagination: The missing mystery of philosophy

The Open University via OpenLearn

Overview

What is imagination and can philosophy define it in any meaningful way? This free course, Imagination: The missing mystery of philosophy, will introduce you to some of the possible answers to these questions and will examine why philosophy has sometimes found it difficult to approach imagination. It will then go on to examine the relationship that imagination has to imagery and supposition, charting where these concepts overlap with imagination and where they diverge.

Syllabus

  • Introduction
  • Learning outcomes
  • 1 Imagination
  • 1 Imagination
  • 2 The varieties of imaginative experience
  • 2 The varieties of imaginative experience
  • 2.1 Meanings of ‘imagination’
  • 2.2 Twelve conceptions of imagination
  • 2.3 A first attempt at defining ‘imagining’
  • 2.4 Gaut's analysis of imagination
  • 2.5 The problematic status of the imagination
  • 3 Imagery and supposition
  • 3 Imagery and supposition
  • 3.1 Imagination and imagery
  • 3.2 Imagination and supposition
  • 4 Conclusion
  • 4 Conclusion
  • 5 Further reading
  • 5 Further reading
  • References
  • Acknowledgements

Reviews

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