Imagination and Knowledge

Organized by Andrea Lailach-Hennrich and Margherita Arcangeli in cooperation with the ‘What If’ research unit

Date September 28-29, 2017
Venue University of Konstanz, Zukunftskolleg, Room Y 311

That imagination as a representational capacity plays a distinctive role in our cognitive architecture is a traditional philosophical thought. However, whether and how imagination can give us knowledge about the external world is a disputed issue. If one is to believe Wittgenstein, then imagination may tell us something about the experiencing subject, but not about the external world. By contrast, more and more philosophers are defending the view that we can acquire knowledge by using imagination. In this workshop we want to focus on the question of how this is possible and examine the different ways in which imagination gives us knowledge. This brings us to consider issues about the conditions for knowledge by imagination. Is knowledge acquired via imagination the same sort of knowledge acquired by different means (e.g., perception or judgement)? Can imagination alone really ground knowledge? Hence, the aim of the workshop is also to consider how imagination relates to other mental phenomena. Last but not least, we will consider the relevance of the idea that there are different species of imagination to the view that imaginings can have epistemic value.

Program