Descartes: Imagination

Imagination is traditionally defined as the mental capacity for experiencing, constructing, or manipulating mental imagery. It is the image of something that is neither "perceived as real nor present to the sense." Imagination is also generally regarded as responsible for fantasy, inventiveness, and creative, original, and insightful thought. Sometimes, it also accounts for a much wider range of mental activities dealing with the "non-actual", such as supposing, pretending, thinking of possibilities, and even being mistaken. …

…a 15-20 Classics of Western Philosophy, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 1999 Classics of Western Philosophy, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 1999 Information in the paragraph comes from Descartes, Treatise On Man, 1644 Descartes Selected Philosophical Writings, Meditation 1, p.76 Replies 5, AT 7:358-59 Descartes Selected Philosophical Writings, Meditation 1, p.83 Descartes Selected Philosophical Writings, Meditation 1, p.84-85 Descartes, René. Philosophical Letters. Trans. Anthony Kenny. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 1970. Professor Samet, response to comments on webCT, October 2nd, 2000