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Single Idea 24062

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 2. Imagination ]

Full Idea

If an animal has a desiring part, it is capable of moving itself. A desiring part, however, cannot exist without an imagination, and all imagination is either rationally calculative or perceptual. Hence in the latter the other animals also have a share.

Gist of Idea

Self-moving animals must have desires, and that entails having imagination

Source

Aristotle (De Anima [c.329 BCE], 433b27)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'De Anima (on the psuche)', ed/tr. Reeve, C.D.C. [Hackett 2017], p.62


A Reaction

Maybe if you asked people whether other animals are imaginative they would say no, but this argument is strong support for the positive view.


The 13 ideas with the same theme [forming mental pictures, esp counterfactuals]:

Self-moving animals must have desires, and that entails having imagination [Aristotle]
Mental activity combines what we sense with imagination of what is not present [Aquinas]
Imagination and sensation are non-essential to mind [Descartes]
Imagination is just weakened sensation [Hobbes]
Locke's view that thoughts are made of ideas asserts the crucial role of imagination [Locke]
Memory, senses and understanding are all founded on the imagination [Hume]
The imagination alone perceives all objects; it is the soul, playing all its roles [La Mettrie]
We are seldom aware of imagination, but we would have no cognition at all without it [Kant]
The imagination has made more discoveries than the eye [Joubert]
Only imagination can connect phenomena together in a rational way [Peirce]
Imagination is important, in evaluating possibility and necessity, via counterfactuals [Williamson]
Understanding is needed for imagination, just as much as the other way around [Betteridge]
Imagination grasps abstracta, generates images, and has its own correctness conditions [Hanna]