Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T21:44:48.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

34 - Imagination in the Philosophy of Art

from Part V - Phenomenology-Based Forms of the Imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2020

Anna Abraham
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Get access

Summary

What is it for something to be an artwork, or a particular kind of artwork? What is the nature of the creative processes whereby artworks come into existence? What kinds of cognitive capacities and processes enter into the reception and appreciation of artworks? Philosophers of art have appealed to the imagination in answering each of these questions. I first consider the nature and role of the imagination in traditional conceptions of artistic creation, and why such conceptions are now viewed as more problematic. I then outline Kendall Walton’s highly influential analysis of the nature and appreciation of artistic representations in terms of a kind of imagining that he terms “make-believe.” I also consider Gregory Currie’s analysis of the nature of literary and cinematic fictions in terms of prescriptions to imagine various things, and of the role of the imagination in our engagement with such fictions. I next address recent critical responses to the roles ascribed to the imagination by Walton and Currie. Finally I look briefly at what has been termed the puzzle of “imaginative resistance,” our reluctance to engage in some of the imaginings prescribed by literary and cinematic fictions.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, R. (1995). Projecting Illusion: Film Spectatorship and the Impression of Reality. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bernstein, G. M. (1981). The Recreating Secondary Imagination in Coleridge’s “The Nightingale”. ELH, 48(2), 339350.Google Scholar
Coleridge, S. T. (1817/1969). Biographia Literaria. Volume 1. Edited by Shawcross, J. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Currie, G. (1990). The Nature of Fiction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currie, G.(1995). Image and Mind: Film, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currie, G.(2003). The Capacities that Enable Us to Produce and Consume Art. In Kieran, M and Lopes, D. M. (eds.), Imagination, Philosophy, and the Arts. London, UK: Routledge, 293304.Google Scholar
Currie, G., and Ravenscroft, I. (2002). Recreative Minds. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Currie, G., and Ichino, A. (2013). Imagination and Make-Believe. In Gaut, B and Lopes, D. M. (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics. 3rd edition. London, UK: Routledge, 320330.Google Scholar
Currie, G., Kieran, M., Meskin, A., and Robson, J. (eds.) (2014). Aesthetics and the Sciences of Mind. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davies, D. (2003). The Imaged, the Imagined, and the Imaginary. In Kieran, M and Lopes, D. M. (eds.), Imagination, Philosophy, and the Arts. London, UK: Routledge, 225244.Google Scholar
Davies, D.(2007). Aesthetics and Literature. London, UK: Continuum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, D.(2013). Dancing around the Issues: Prospects for an Empirically Grounded Philosophy of Dance. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 71(2), 195202.Google Scholar
Davies, D.(2014). “This is your Brain on Art”: What Can Philosophy of Art Learn from Neuroscience? In Currie, G, Kieran, M, Meskin, A, and Robson, J (eds.), Aesthetics and the Sciences of Mind. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 5774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, D.(2015). Fictive Utterance and the Fictionality of Narratives and Works. The British Journal of Aesthetics, 55(1), 3955.Google Scholar
Friend, S. (2008). Imagining Fact and Fiction. In Stock, K and Thompson-Jones, K (eds.), New Waves in Aesthetics. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 150169.Google Scholar
Gaut, B. (2003). Creativity and Imagination. In Gaut, B and Livingston, P (eds.), The Creation of Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 148173.Google Scholar
Gendler, T. (2000). The Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance. Journal of Philosophy, 97, 5581.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. (2007). Fiction and the Weave of Life. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hamlyn, D. W. (1994). Imagination. In Guttenplan, S (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 361366.Google Scholar
Hume, D. (1757/1993). Of the Standard of Taste. In Copley, S and Edgar, A (eds.), Selected Essays. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 133154.Google Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. (1983). Mental Models. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kalderon, M. (2005). Fictionalism in Metaphysics. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Kant, I. (1787/1929). Critique of Pure Reason. 2nd edition. Translated by Norman Kemp-Smith. London, UK: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kant, I.(1790/1951). Critique of Judgment. Translated by J. H. Bernard. New York, NY: Haffner Press.Google Scholar
Lopes, D. M. (1998). Imagination, Illusion, and Experience in Film. Philosophical Studies, 89, 343353.Google Scholar
Matravers, D. (2003). Fictional Assent and the (So-Called) “Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance”. In Kieran, M and Lopes, D (eds.), Imagination, Philosophy, and the Arts. London, UK: Routledge, 91106.Google Scholar
Matravers, D. (2014). Fiction and Narrative. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stock, K. (2005). Resisting Imaginative Resistance. Philosophical Quarterly, 55, 607624.Google Scholar
Walton, K. (1990). Mimesis as Make-Believe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Walton, K. (1993). Metaphor and Prop-Oriented Make-Believe. European Journal of Philosophy, 1(1), 3957.Google Scholar
Walton, K. (1994). Morals in Fiction and Fictional Morality. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, supplementary volume, 68, 2750.Google Scholar
Walton, K.(2002). Depiction, Perception, and Imagination: Responses to Richard Wollheim. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 60(1), 2735.Google Scholar
Warnock, M. (1976). Imagination. London, UK: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Weatherson, B. (2004). Morality, Fiction, and Possibility. Philosophers’ Imprint 4(3), 127.Google Scholar
Wollheim, R. (1987). Painting as an Art. London, UK: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Yablo, S. (2002). Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda. In Gendler, T and Hawthorne, J (eds.), Conceivability and Possibility. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 441–492.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×