Thinking Through the Imagination

the long version

Use your imagination! The demand is as important as it is confusing. What is the imagination? What is its value? Where does it come from? And where is it going in a time when even the obscene seems overdone and passe? This title takes up these questions and argues for the centrality of imagination in human cognition. It traces the development of the imagination in the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and claims that the insights of Kantian aesthetic theory, especially concerning the nature of creativity, common sense, and genius, influenced the development of 19th century American philosophy.