Abstract

This paper considers the implications that Heidegger’s analysis of imagination has for radicalizing his hermeneutical inquiry into being. While initially appearing as a “psychological concept,” the development of imagination is nevertheless crucial for rooting human existence in the finite dimensions of temporality. Imagination has Kantian overtones as performing the vital role of synthesizing a pregiven manifold for knowledge. Yet Heidegger construes imagination in its dual role both as unifying the dimensions of time and as providing new configurations of meaning in the fonnulation of ontological concepts. The transition from imagination as “synthesizer” to “innovator” forms the heart of Heidegger’s attempt to address being according to its diverse manifestations, that is, as entailing more original ways to articulate its “meaning(s).” Thus, imagination re-emerges as a power which expands the parameters of interpretation, and establishes new possibilities in the attempt to express the meaning of being in conceptual terms. The paper underscores the contemporary relevance of imagination as re-shaping the topography or landscape of ontological investigation.