Imagination and experience : An introduction

Abstract

This introduction presents an overview of the key issues discussed in the chapters of the book. This volume brings together two philosophical research areas that have been subject to increased attention: work regarding the unique character of having an experience and studies on the nature and powers of imagination. While in recent decades, there has been an increasing interest in examining the epistemic value of experience and the nature of phenomenal knowledge, the philosophy of imagination has emerged simultaneously as a new field of research. New arguments in various philosophical debates suggest that there is a need to examine how both areas of research interrelate and can enrich one another. Our book seeks to bring together these two fields of research and, in so doing, fill a lacuna in the existing literature. The chapters of the book examine topics related to the overlap and intersection of both areas. In particular, the book explores epistemological, ontological, normative, phenomenological, and intersubjective issues common to both areas of research as well as different ways in which philosophical analyses of experience can enhance our understanding of imagination and vice versa.