What is the role of imagination in philosophy? This course explores the function and importance of the imagination, focusing on the views of Hume and Kant, and examining interpretations in modern philosophy.
What does philosophy consider imagination to be, and how does it define its role? Hume, who considered imagination to be a key issue in philosophy, is considered to be the first philosopher to define imagination as a mental and acquired function, in contrast to the existing view that imagination is a physical and innate function. Hume distinguishes between “impressions” and “ideas,” which are mental activities of human beings. Impressions are the direct material of experience of an object, such as a sense, and an idea is an image that arises when an impression is brought to mind. Here, Hume sees the ability to reproduce an image through an impression as “imagination. Imagination is the most basic ability for us to understand and think about objects based on ideas.
Hume presents “memory” along with imagination as the ability to reproduce an impression in the form of an idea. The difference between memory and imagination, like the difference between impression and concept, is the degree of vividness. Memory reproduces impressions more vividly than imagination. Therefore, the concepts reproduced by memory are much more vivid and intense than those reproduced by imagination. In addition, memory reproduces in the same order as the original impressions, while imagination reproduces freely regardless of order. The concepts that are reproduced by memory are concepts of specific impressions received at a specific time and place, but the concepts that are reproduced by imagination are concepts that are reproduced differently from the original impressions in terms of the order in which each impression was created or even the spatial arrangement of each impression. In other words, imagination can combine or separate concepts, unlike memory. Imagination cannot create impressions, but it can autonomously reorganize the concepts created from impressions.
However, Hume sees that there are certain limits to the autonomy of the imagination. He explains that the imagination combines concepts through the principle of association of ideas, which is not innate but acquired through experience, and represents similarities, adjacencies, and causality. When the imagination combines concepts, it does not do so arbitrarily, but by combining similar concepts that are spatially and temporally contiguous, or concepts that are in a causal relationship. For Hume, arbitrarily combined concepts are nothing more than meaningless fantasies.
Hume also says that the nature of the homeostasis of the imagination allows it to secure identity beyond the discontinuity between impressions of an object. The continuous existence of an object means that the object maintains its identity, and this identity is secured by the imagination. It can be understood that the sky we see in the morning is not something that has been destroyed and recreated overnight, but is due to homeostasis. It is through this homeostasis of the imagination that we can continually understand and perceive the world.
Unlike Hume, Kant studied the imagination from an a priori perspective. According to Kant, the human cognitive faculty is divided into four categories: sensitivity, imagination, intellect, and reason. “Sensibility” is the ability to accept what is given to us by an object through the five senses. “Intellect” is the ability to form concepts and make judgments about a given situation based on those concepts. “Imagination” is the ability to combine the two different abilities of sensitivity and intellect, to convey the content of sensitivity to the intellect and the content of the intellect to the sensitivity. When the imagination conveys the content of sensibility to the intellect, a combination is achieved, while when the content of the intellect is conveyed to sensibility by the imagination, schematization occurs. “Reason” is the ability to think, which systematizes the knowledge accumulated in various fields through emotion, imagination, and intellect into the concepts of soul, universe, or God. In this way, Kant distinguished human cognitive faculties into emotion, imagination, intellect, and reason, and emphasized the role of imagination as the mediator between emotion and intellect by analyzing the principles of how each function works and how they are related. Kant believed that perception cannot be established without imagination.
In terms of combination and schematization, Kant distinguishes between “reproductive imagination” and “productive imagination. Reproductive imagination is the ability to reproduce and combine the various sensations felt through the five senses. It consists of a process of first scanning the disordered and diverse sensations, and then reproducing and combining what has been scanned. This is also called synthesis, which combines what we experience at different times into a unified whole. For example, when I look at an apple, I look through and gather the various sensations I feel with my five senses and combine them into a single image, which is a synthesis that occurs through regenerative imagination.
Productive imagination is the ability to actively create schemas. Schemas are a priori forms that are not influenced by the senses and are prior to experience, making it possible to recognize that experience. These schemas allow abstract concepts to be understood by connecting them to concrete senses. Furthermore, productive imagination can create schemata that not only allow concepts to be understood accurately, but also to be applied freely. In this way, Kant went beyond Hume’s limitations by exploring imagination from an a priori level, which Hume had studied from an empirical level.
Meanwhile, the philosophical discussion of imagination continues in modern philosophy. Modern philosophers do not view imagination as simply a tool for mediating perception, but also pay attention to the fact that imagination is deeply related to human creativity. Thus, imagination is seen as the driving force behind the creation of new ideas and innovations in various fields, including art, literature, and science. This is because imagination is recognized as the ability to create something new and transcend existing frameworks, beyond simple reproduction. Therefore, imagination remains an important subject of philosophical inquiry and will continue to be reinterpreted and explored in various ways.
