more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Imagination is nothing else but sense decaying or weakened by the absence of the object.
Gist of Idea
Imagination is just weakened sensation
Source
Thomas Hobbes (De Corpore (Elements, First Section) [1655], 4.25.07)
Book Ref
Hobbes,Thomas: 'Metaphysical Writings', ed/tr. Calkins,Mary Whiton [Open Court 1905], p.121
A Reaction
This sounds more like memory than imagination. He needs to say something about unusual combinations of memories, I would have thought.
| 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] |