Overview
- The book elevates imagination to higher mental function, providing a brand new theory of imagining
- A deep yet accessible overview to imagining across disciplines and epochs. A reading suitable for researchers, students and general public
- Opens a complete new frontiers in the study of imagining, its genesis in human development and its role in human knowing
Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Psychology (BRIEFSPSYCHOL)
Part of the book sub series: SpringerBriefs in Theoretical Advances in Psychology (BRIEFSTHEORET)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This is a book about imaginative work and its relationship with the construction of knowledge. It is fully acknowledged by epistemologists that imagination is not something opposed to rationality; it is not mere fantasy opposed to intellect. In philosophy and cognitive sciences, imagination is generally “delimiting not much more than the mental ability to interact cognitively with things that are not now present via the senses.” (Stuart, 2017, p. 11) For centuries, scholars and poets have wondered where this capability could come from, whether it is inspired by divinity or it is a peculiar feature of human mind (Tateo, 2017b).
The omnipresence of imaginative work in both every day and highly specialized human activities requires a profoundly radical understanding of this phenomenon. We need to work imaginatively in order to achieve knowledge, thus imagination must be something more than a mere flight of fantasy. Considering different stories in the field of scientific endeavor, I will try to propose the idea that the imaginative process is fundamental higher mental function that concurs in our experiencing, knowing and understanding the world we are part of. This book is thus about a theoretical idea of imagining as constant part of the complex whole we call the human psyche. It is a story of human beings striving not only for knowledge and exploration but also striving for imagining possibilities.Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: A Theory of Imagining, Knowing, and Understanding
Authors: Luca Tateo
Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Psychology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38025-0
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and Psychology, Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-38024-3Published: 10 March 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-38025-0Published: 09 March 2020
Series ISSN: 2192-8363
Series E-ISSN: 2192-8371
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 87
Number of Illustrations: 9 b/w illustrations, 10 illustrations in colour
Topics: Cognitive Psychology, Emotion, Epistemology, Cultural Studies, Cross Cultural Psychology, Cognitive Linguistics