Also the nature of philosophy is a philosophical question, e.g. whether it is the search after the truth, therapeutic contemplation, or love of wisdom. I believe that the latter is the generally accepted definition.can philosophy be considered "seeking after the truth", or no? — Noble Dust
can philosophy be considered "seeking after the truth", or no? — Noble Dust
Also the nature of philosophy is a philosophical question, e.g. whether it is the search after the truth, therapeutic contemplation, or love of wisdom. I believe that the latter is the generally accepted definition. — jkop
Imagination seems to me to be the dynamic medium in which and along which all of our other facilities flow, how we synthesize reason & experience. — Cavacava
I'd say obscure thought or expression tends to inhibit the possibility to imagine and arrive at conclusions. — jkop
Also the nature of philosophy is a philosophical question, e.g. whether it is the search after the truth, therapeutic contemplation, or love of wisdom. I believe that the latter is the generally accepted definition. — jkop
In ancient philosophy 'seeking after the truth' was one of the first definitions, so it has attained rather more prominence than it should now. — ernestm
Philosophical truth in the current era is rather formally defined as the property of a statement--or derived from a statement--or a natural quality that is necessarily inherent in a statement-- or some other association to a statement, depending on one's epistemology. — ernestm
I'd say 'Of course'. We use imagination to generate examples, concoct problem cases, conduct thought-experiments, invent novel arguments and probably in of most of the things philosophers do. — yazata
My view is that the whole 'possible worlds' idea is dependent on imagination. Although not usually expressed that way, a 'possible world' is in my view just a set of circumstances that we can imagine. — andrewk
does imagination play a role in the process of seeking after the truth? — Noble Dust
Not as merely a kind of day-dreaming or imagining scenes or stories, but of dwelling within a realm of ideas. — Wayfarer
I read the collective biography of The Inklings last year, the group which included Tolkien and C S Lewis. — Wayfarer
Tolkien was a lectured in old Icelandic, Middle English, and many other subjects - his workload was tremendous. But more than that, he was able to intuitively create an entire kingdom replete with its own languages, creatures, and histories. — Wayfarer
I read the other day that the all-seeing eye of Sauron is a metaphor for today's scientific materialism. — Wayfarer
So to craft his story Tolkien had to create imaginary worlds, but, like the great myths, these imaginary realms convey ideas which can't be communicated in quotidian and analytical terms; 'myths truer than history', I have heard it said. — Wayfarer
I think that is why so much of what is called philosophy nowadays is a specialist lexicon which is comprehensible only to those who are admitted into its professional ranks. Because the conception of truth has shrunken to the merely utilitarian or technical, then there is no requirement for any kind of imaginative leap, only the kinds of technical linguistic skills employed by professionals such as scientists and accountants, albeit with no external reference beyond what the peer group validates as appropriate to the discipline.
Whereas I think the last of the idealist philosophers, Hegel and Schopenhauer were tremendously imaginative in their respective ways, as their philosophy demanded re-imagining the nature of what we think we know about life - which after all was the real purpose of philosophy at the outset. — Wayfarer
My reticence about 'day dreaming' is probably more a reflection on the unending series of CGI-based 'superhero' movies from Hollywood which are generally devoid of meaning - science fantasy. — Wayfarer
There are some great sci-fi movies, but also a lot of empty ones. — Wayfarer
My view is that the whole 'possible worlds' idea is dependent on imagination. Although not usually expressed that way, a 'possible world' is in my view just a set of circumstances that we can imagine. — andrewk
apparently the entire world [Tolkien] created was a pet project of sorts to imagine what a mythical English prehistory would be. — Noble Dust
And to tie it back to my discussion topic, how might these aspects of artistic creation apply to a philosophical perspective? Or do they even need to? — Noble Dust
The total character of the world, however, is in all eternity chaos—in the sense not of a lack of necessity but of a lack of order, arrangement, form, beauty, wisdom, and whatever other names there are for our aesthetic anthropomorphisms... Let us beware of saying that there are laws in nature. There are only necessities: there is nobody who commands, nobody who obeys, nobody who trespasses. Once you know that there are no purposes, you also know that there is no accident; for it is only beside a world of purposes that the word "accident" has any meaning.
Another way of saying it would be: does imagination play a role in the process of seeking after the truth? — Noble Dust
Truth is the result of evaluating the validity of a proposition, and the sum of known propositions by any one person constitutes their knowledge — ernestm
I see that as one function among others that imagination performs. I think of the imagination of children; the ability to be ridiculous. The artist Makoto Fujimura, who's painting "Walking On Water" is in my avatar, says that imagination and creativity are gratuitous. He's willfully repurposing that word here (repurposing being an action that artists regularly perform; philosophers seem to dread it). In other words, imagination serves no utilitarian purpose. I would amend that to say that imagination is not confined by a utilitarian purpose, and as such is free to serve any purpose, including the ones you describe. But fundamentally, it's completely free and not bound by anything.
Truth may be the result of evaluation, but back at logic, that would be quite different from validity. One can make a valid argument and end with up with false conclusions; to be valid and true, you need soundness, the successful transmission of the truth-value you hope you started with. — mcdoodle
I'm definitely seeking after wisdom, of which 'the truth' may or may not form an important part. — mcdoodle
On the Uni course I'm currently on I attended a lecture course on 'Imagination' for pleasure. In the analytic world this rather surprisingly means examining the artistic/creative imagination and puzzling over fictionality and aesthetics. — mcdoodle
I'm interested in the notion (which I think would be Continental but there you go) that there are different *kinds* of imaginative world, overlapping, but broadly understandable in their divisions. Then the sort of thing that Wayfarer is arguing against would be the result of philosophers becoming preoccupied with 'the scientific imagination', and mistaking the ideas in that imaginative sphere for the totality of ideas, or at least for an unthought-through predominance. — mcdoodle
I think then one could postulate 'the religious imagination', 'the artistic imagination', 'the historical imagination' and 'the political imagination' (in the way that Landru in our old forum would describe various 'discourses'), together with whatever others one desires to discourse about, without insisting that a scientific view predominates. — mcdoodle
I think in classical culture, there was relationship between art, literature, and philosophy, but that since Nietszche (not simply because of Nietszche, he was in some ways simply a bellwether), the idea sounds hopelessly nostalgic and out of date. — Wayfarer
Oh. Well what I am thinking is that there are now very exact formal definitions of logical truth, and that in modern philosophy, that is the preferred definition. — ernestm
It seems at least apparently on one level that you are looking at kinds of imagination, not imagination itself. — Cavacava
Imagination brings sense and intellect together, it is the 'medium' of our interaction with the senses. — Cavacava
There is no reason why the paint walks on water the way it does, similarly a work of art does not have a reason beyond itself, a purpose beyond what it is. — Cavacava
Imagination does not have a reason, it is a functional part of what it means to reason, it expresses the movement from sensing to understanding, it is movement of thought regardless of its truth or falsity, its utility or gratuity, its seriousness or its "ability to be ridiculous". — Cavacava
Philosophically, the imagination is primary not derivative. — Baden
What would happen if we actually caught the truth? — VagabondSpectre
Would philosophers bat it around back and forth like a proud cat who captured and killed a mouse? — VagabondSpectre
Imagination is absolutely necessary in philosophy. It's necessary for thought too I reckon... Otherwise we would just exhibit basic reactions to basic stimulus, like so many uninteresting animals... — VagabondSpectre
How could wisdom and truth be so far apart that one might not necessarily be connected to the other? What makes wisdom wise if not truth? What makes truth true if not wisdom? — Noble Dust
I don't see these different "forms" of imagination as being necessary. They sound to me like theoretical postulations that don't have any grounding in the real imagination as experienced. The imagination as experienced is absolutely fluid. It's not categorical at all. Assigning categories to imagination is just a function of human reason trying to give meaning to the imaginative experience — Noble Dust
After recent personal explorations of Aristotle I'd say this can come in (a) a practical form, phronesis or practical reason being about right action, and (b) a thoughtful form, sophia or contemplative wisdom being about right thinking. This 'rightness' is not an ethic I would press upon othe — mcdoodle
This 'rightness' is not an ethic I would press upon others, it's right for me, though I might recommend the process of arriving at it to others. — mcdoodle
This gives us two 'images' to 'imagine', to start with. Then - having been a struggling artist most of my life - I would certainly like to add artistic imagination. I am struck by how poorly critical analytic language relates to the practice of art. — mcdoodle
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