The Philosophy of Imagination Our subject matter is the important, diverse, and somewhat elusive role that imagination has played in the history of Western Philosophy and the recent resurgence of interest for it in analytic philosophy. Imagination has been and is at the crossroad of epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of modality. On this basis, imagination-grounded concepts find application in diverse branches of philosophy like ethics, aesthetics, and social and political philosophy. The course will concentrate, however, on the fundamental theoretical issues concerning imagination: the position and status of imagination among the functions of the mind; the character of imaginative contents; the intentionality of imagination; the justificatory-epistemic import of justification; imagination and modality. The first part of the course will deal with some main figures in Western philosophy who have dealt with imagination: I will concentrate on Aristotle, Descartes and Spinoza, Hume, and Kant. The second part will deal with the contemporary discussions of the topics mentioned above. I will constantly keep present the liaisons between the philosophy and the cognitive science of imagination. This will be a constant concern of the seminar. But I will not let it obliterate the distinctness and importance of the philosophical viewpoint.

MAIN REFERENCE TEXTS The Routledge Handbook of philosophy of Imagination, Amy Kind, ed., 2016 P. Langland-Hassan, Explaining Imagination, OUP, 2020 CLASSICS Aristotle, De anima Descartes, Of man Spinoza, Ethics Hume, Treatise of human nature Kant, Critique of pure reason CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE A. Kind, Putting the Image back in the Imagination, 2001 C. McGinn, Mindsight, 2004 S. Nichols, The Architecture of Imagination, 2006 T. Williamson, The Philosophy of Philosophy, 2007 (Other materials will be made available)