Introduction
Imagination always infers perception (Aristotle, Book II). Aristotle’s opening quote points to one view for imagination, and it is from perception and its mechanics that this investigation into the state of imagination commences hoping to become less imaginary about perception.
Historical Views
Greek philosophers perceived imagination, or phantasia, as a filter that directly affected/changed perception (Caston 1996). This suspicion/mistrust of imagination has historically led Western philosophers to construe it as: “…something different from the mind” (Cohoe 1996/2016, p. 321). The nature of this something different was written about by both Aristotle and Plato as, “causally derives from sensation, and its character derives from the character of that sensation” (Ibid, p. 328). Linking imagination to perception, sensation, and character reflects on how early Greek philosophers framed human psychology and imagination’s influence on human nature. Scheiter (2012) notes that...
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Haldeman, D. (2020). Imagination. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_200068
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