Do Imaginings have a Goal?

Axiomathes: Global Philosophy 33 (1):1-17 (2023)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The paper investigates whether imaginative states about propositions can be assessed in terms of fittingness (also known as correctness, appropriateness, aptness). After characterizing propositional imaginings and explaining the idea of fittingness, I present some considerations in favour of the no conditions view: imagining seems to be the sort of action that cannot be done unfittingly, and imaginings have no external cognitive nor conative goals in light of which they could be unfitting. I then examine the local conditions view, that there can be fittingness conditions on imaginings, but that these are inherited from the mental projects in which imaginings can play a role. Given that there are virtues of the imagination such as creativity and spontaneity, and given that imaginings are subject to purposive mechanisms, and given that there are cases in which it is unfitting to fail to imagine, I endorse the general conditions view, on which imaginings have a goal, and therefore fittingness conditions, even outside the context of mental projects. I then examine 4 versions of the general conditions view and argue that imaginings aim to make contents available to mental projects.

Other Versions

reprint Hunt, Marcus William (2023) "Do Imaginings have a Goal?". Global Philosophy 33(1):1-17

Links

PhilArchive

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Imaginative Attitudes.Peter Langland-Hassan - 2015 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 90 (3):664-686.
Not by Imaginings Alone: On How Imaginary Worlds Are Established.Alon Chasid - 2021 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 7 (2):195-212.
A Puzzle about Imagining Believing.Alon Chasid - 2021 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 13 (3):529-547.
The Epistemic Status of the Imagination.Joshua Myers - 2021 - Philosophical Studies 178 (10):3251-3270.
Overly Enactive Imagination? Radically Re‐Imagining Imagining.Daniel D. Hutto - 2015 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 53 (S1):68-89.
The Contents of Imagination.Jordi Fernández - 2022 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 52 (8):828-842.
A normative aspect of imagining: taking on a (quasi-)doxastic role.Alon Chasid - 2024 - In Íngrid Vendrell-Ferran & Christiana Werner (eds.), Imagination and Experience: Philosophical Explorations. New York, NY: Routledge.

Analytics

Added to PP
2023-01-24

Downloads
219 (#102,915)

6 months
84 (#81,691)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Marcus Hunt
Tulane University (PhD)

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references