Emily Jenkins PHIL 450 1

Emily Brady & The Integrated Aesthetic II:Imagination, Emotion and knowledge“Essentially, imagination facilitates free play, a creative approach to appreciation that leads to the discovery of aesthetic qualities”

Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand”.

The Basics

“imagination” construed broadly imagining not just as making believe, but as visualizing

or otherwise coming up with ranges of possibilities. agrees with Kant’s position that central to human aes.

pleasure is what he called a “free play of imagination” aes. experiences are marked by disinterestedness immersion stimulates imagination, for imagination

‘intensifies’ experience plays exploratory, projective, ampliative, and revelatory

roles Imagination is not equal to imaginary

WHY & WHAT IS IMAGINATION When the imagination is active, it opens up the aesthetic horizon and deepens the aes.

Response potential to encourage a more intimate engagement with our natural surroundings Imagination facilitates free play a creative approach that leads to ase. discovery *AIM: To show that imagination is in fact a very broad concept, fantasy being only one of

its many modes of activity. Imagination is not opposed to truth; a proper understanding of its relationship to truth will enable a better grasp of the real value of this mental power

*Two Theories of Imagination: (1). Sensory Imagination (2). Creative Imagination

VALUE & GUIDELINES *value of creative imagination in aes. experience requires that we

distinguish between the imaginative and the imaginary, relevant and irrelevant imaginings, and find the right balance between the serious and the trivial.

*THREE WAYS IMAGININGS ARE GUIDED:

(1). the way the objects qualities evoke and direct our imaginings

(2). Disinterestedness

(3). Imagining well

*KANTS VIEW OF IMAGINATION -provides a starting point for understanding how imagination is active-‘productive imagination’ is exercised to its fullest in the judgments of taste that characterize the aes. response.-judgments of taste imagination is engaged in a free, harmonious play with the understanding.-no cognitive aim-in its free play, imagination makes connections and associations in relation to the object’s qualities for their own sake

“IMAGINING WELL”

• *THREE WAYS IMAGININGS ARE GUIDED:(1). the way the objects qualities evoke and direct our imaginings(2). Disinterestedness

-characterizes aes. appreciation as non-practical and non- instrumental-active detachmentkeeps the free activity of imagination in checkprevents self-indulgence

ex). Taking a star to be a good luck charm(3). Imagining well

-characterized by comparing imagination to virtue -not a natural capacitylearned, acquired through

IMAGINING WELL involves “spotting aes. potential, having a sense of what to look for, and knowing when to clip the wings of imagination”

-prevents the irrelevance of shallow, naïve, and sentimental imaginative responses that impoverish appreciation

EX). Imagining a lamb dressed up in baby clothes.

-Yes, might underline a truth about innocencebut it is sentimental and shallow.

*Thus, it fails to direct an appreciation appropriately

• Critics of imagination misconceive the concept by assuming that a free imagination is one without limits

• perceptual qualities of aes. object guide imagination by giving it direction, and through suggestion by sensory cues

-in order to avoid irrelevant images, inappropriate responsesthose that are trivial, sentimental, self-indulgent

Metaphoric Imagination Involves bringing together two different things in novel ways fusing an aes. object or aspect of it with some image that is not an image of that object in using imagination to make a novel connection, we work from our experience of the

qualities of one thing and work towards a creative comparison to another thing

EX). ShipRock is a free form gothic cathedral

-metaphorical expression used to capture the character of a massive protuberance of complex forms which rises towards the sky out of the flat desert. -jagged forms are reminiscent of the pointy parts of Gothic cathedral towers-the connection is not arbitrary

-METAPHORICAL DESCRIPTIONS:• help us make sense of what we see• direct appreciation• succeed in offering images of other things for

comparison• work both to refine and enrich our apprehension of aes.

qualities.

EXPLORATORY IMAGINATION• imagination follows the lead of perception and explores

various perceptual qualities and relationships between qualities as we attend to the aes. object

• Reaches beyond the perceptual field and engages in a free contemplation of the object

• brings meaning to bear on perceptual qualitiesidentify aes. qualities and broaden our grasp of the object

EX). LOCUST TREE AS A WISE OLD SAGE -in contemplating the barkvisually see the deep clefts between the thick ridgesmountains and valleysthink of age of tree given the thickness of ridgesimage of an old mancome to respect the tree as a wise old sage

PROJECTIVE IMAGINATION: projective powers of the imagination involves imagining ‘on to’ what is perceivedwhat is actual is replaced with an overlaid projected image projective imagination is associated with deliberate ‘seeing as’intentionally seeing something as something else.

*We put ‘seeing as’ to work in order to try out new perspectives on objects by projecting images on themEX) The stars at night WE PROJECT GEOMETRICAL SHAPES ON THEM

*imagination provides a more intimate aes. experiences, allowing the exploration of aes qualities more deeply than through

perception alone

*PROJECTING OURSELVES INTO AN ENVIR.--GARDENS:

-gardens invite us to explore themEx). The romantic fake ruins built into gardenencourage us to “imaginatively live for a moment in the irretrievable past while simultaneously aware of the power of time to negate the presentEX #2). Natural invitation of openings in forests encourage exploration

*PARTICIPATORY CHARACTER OF PROJECTIVE IMAGINATION:

-through imagination, we attempt to gain access to natures ways, to explore its otherness-also facilitates a sympathetic or empathetic identification with nature

*empathy is attributed to the imagination—capacity for entering imaginally into the situation of another person or animal

AMPLIATIVE IMAGINATION: involves the inventive powersneed not make use of images marked by heightened creative powers and a special curiosity in its response to

natural objects amplifies what is given in perceptionreaching beyond mere projection of images

there upon PENETRATIVEdeeper imaginative treatment of object imagination in its most active mode in aes. experience involves visualizing and leaps of imaginationto approach natural objects from new

standpoints

*Amplative imagination enables us to expand beyond what we perceive by placing or contextualizing the aes. object with narrative images:EX) Andrew Wyeth illustrates this with an example from the sea:

‘A white mussel shell on a gravel bank in Maine is trilling to me because it’s all the sea—the gull that brought it there, the rain, the sun that bleached it…’

REVELATORY IMAGINATION:• where ampliative imagination

leads to disclosurerevelatory imaginative activity

• invention stretches powers to its limitsgives way to new ideas and meanings (non-religious )

• new understanding not gained through intellectual endeavor

• revelatory imagination is part of an aes. experience:

*An idea, belief, or value is crystallized through heightened aes. experience, where perceptual land imaginative engagement with nature facilitates the kind of close attention that leads to revelation.

EX). BABY LAMB-at first glance we acknowledge its

sweetnessfuller participation of magination and perceptionbrings a stronger grasp of the nature of innocence.

-gain new insights

*it is through dwelling aesthetically and imaginatively on natural phenomena that we may achieve new ways of seeing

THE CRITICS imaginations relationship to truth argue imagination is not concerned with truth but rather with entertaining

possibilities Fear that imaginative activity is “prone to subjective flights of fantasy”—this

leaves that actual qualities behind and replaces them with individual, arbitrary fantasy.

Argue that app. must be guided by science COGNITIVE CAMPS: recognizes positive aspects of imagination; however,

they insist that it should be constrained by the necessary condition of scientific knowledge.

• Brady thinks nec. condition places an unrealistic and unacceptable intellectual demands on appreciators in order to have a “correct” app.

• Critics misconceive [her] position by assuming that a free imagination is an imagination without limits

DEFENING IMAGINATION *Defending imagination must be done on a case-by-case basis EATONclaims “imaginative flights” (the lamb and the locust tree), no way of answering whether these examples are appropriate

without relying on cognitive model -“imagining well” makes no sense unless one knows what the object is, something about it, and the context in which it is

found. -also claims Brady does not give explicit example of where imagination falsifies nature.

*replylamb in baby clothes, falsifies nature. imagination engages in entertaining beliefs, not in ascertaining facts not opposed to belief or reducible to fancy imagining is accompanied by an awareness of the relationship between an imagining and the beliefs that surround it. *PLAYFUL VS. SERIOUS/TRIVIAL EXAMPLE OF A BOY AND A GEOLOGIST EXPERIENCING A HILLSIDE

-the boysees a hill as a giants head-playfulclaim is that the boys imagining points to perceptual featuresEXAMPLE OF ICE-CREAM –CONE AS MOUNATIN IMAGE-not only irrelevant, but trivial

*RELEVANT VS. IRRELAVANT IMAGININGS

-standard for distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant not fixed by truth and falsity-relevance is determined based on her guidelines

*IRRELAVANT IMAGININGS :(1). Fail to meet condition of disinterestedness(2). Those that can be shown to have no relationship to the qualities of the aes. object (ice-cream cone)

THE COMMUNICIBLITY OF IMAGAINTION

-it is a common mistake to assume the imagination is characterized by waywardness *KANTthe intersubjectivity of aesthetic judgments -individual judgments based in feelings claim subjective universality -aes. judgments lay claim to communicability:

*Hepburn echoing Kant: *if we share a common environment, the annexed form [of imagination] can range from the

universally intersubjective, through the shareable though not universal, to the highly individual and personal. Basic natural forms are interiorized for the articulating of a common structure of the mind. Through these, the elusively nonspatial is made more readily graspable and communicable. (170)

*imaginingsparticular rather than general, BUT they are potentially shareable -other elements of aes. responseperception, emotion, and cognition are also potentially shareable. * “Like emotion, imagination is an individual power shaped by the events and values in any individual

life. It is this particularity that gives our imaginings their richness. At the same time, our imaginings are not unrelated to the objective world, indeed, they center upon it; imaginings are connected to qualities in objects and surrounding beliefs” (171).