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Full Idea
This power of imagination which is in me, in so far as it differs from the power of conceiving, is in no way necessary to my nature or essence.
Gist of Idea
Imagination and sensation are non-essential to mind
Source
René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §6.73)
Book Ref
Descartes,René: 'Discourse on Method/The Meditations', ed/tr. Sutcliffe,F.E. [Penguin 1968], p.151
A Reaction
This is my candidate for the biggest blunder ever made by a great philosopher. But it was thanks to his mistake that I began to realise how totally central imagination is to the very act of thinking. Thank you, René.
| 24062 | Self-moving animals must have desires, and that entails having imagination [Aristotle] |
| 9098 | Mental activity combines what we sense with imagination of what is not present [Aquinas] |
| 1399 | Imagination and sensation are non-essential to mind [Descartes] |
| 17260 | Imagination is just weakened sensation [Hobbes] |
| 7721 | Locke's view that thoughts are made of ideas asserts the crucial role of imagination [Locke] |
| 21806 | Memory, senses and understanding are all founded on the imagination [Hume] |
| 7647 | The imagination alone perceives all objects; it is the soul, playing all its roles [La Mettrie] |
| 22443 | We are seldom aware of imagination, but we would have no cognition at all without it [Kant] |
| 8094 | The imagination has made more discoveries than the eye [Joubert] |
| 14769 | Only imagination can connect phenomena together in a rational way [Peirce] |
| 14628 | Imagination is important, in evaluating possibility and necessity, via counterfactuals [Williamson] |
| 6901 | Understanding is needed for imagination, just as much as the other way around [Betteridge] |
| 11081 | Imagination grasps abstracta, generates images, and has its own correctness conditions [Hanna] |