Fantasia essata: behind Flusser’s theory of imagination

Practices of Imagination, Zeitsprünge. Studien zur Frühen Neuzeit, 2022

This paper will explore how the interplay of art and science is constitutive of our world-perception and world-experience that crystallises into scientific designs. By focusing on the early modern period as a macro-category of case studies, I will attempt to show how, in the early modern period, the artistic - and more generally the 'aesthetic' - imaginary contributes to structure the ways in which people conceive of themselves in the world. In the first section, I will propose an interpretive key that counters Feynman's thesis that there are two kinds of clearly distinct imaginative practices: mere fiction and the scientific imagination. The working hypothesis therein is that "imagination", which operates primarily at the level of aesthetic expression, performs a dual function: that of "shaping the world" and that of "anthropological topics". In the second section, I will apply this research hypothesis to two major case study fields in the early modern period, namely imaginary journeys and utopian languages. In the third section, I will show in more detail how Leibniz, but especially Descartes, present the idea of modern science as a rational (and rationalist) project by using fully familiar topoi that belong to the aesthetic and literary imaginary of the Renaissance. The work of Descartes, as the forge of an epistemic and clearly formulated conception of rationality, will finally show itself as the place where literary and artificial topoi are transformed into epistemic figures. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) Dieser Aufsatz will untersuchen, wie das Zusammenspiel von Kunst und Wissenschaft ist konstitutiv für unsere Welt-Wahrnehmung und Welt-Erfahrung, die sich in wissenschaftliche Entwürfe sich herauskristallisiert. Indem ich mich auf die Zeit der Frühen Neuzeit als Makrokategorie von Fallstudien konzentriere, werde ich zu zeigen versuchen, wie in der Frühen Neuzeit das künstlerische - und allgemeiner das "ästhetische" - Imaginäre dazu beiträgt, die Art und Weise zu strukturieren, in der Menschen sich selbst in der Welt begreifen. Im ersten Abschnitt werde ich einen Interpretationsschlüssel vorschlagen, der der Feynman-These entgegensteht, wonach es zwei Arten von klar voneinander getrennten Einbildungspraktiken gibt: die bloße Fiktion und die wissenschaftliche Imagination. Die Arbeitshypothese darin besteht, die "Imagination", die in erster Linie auf der Ebene der ästhetischen Ausdrucksformen arbeitet, als eine doppelte Funktion leistend: die der “Weltgestaltung” und die der “anthropologischen Topik”. Im zweiten Abschnitt werde ich diese Forschungshypothese auf zwei große Fallstudienfelder in der Frühen Neuzeit anwenden, nämlich auf die imaginären Reisen und die utopischen Sprachen. Im dritten Abschnitt werde ich genauer zeigen, wie Leibniz, aber insbesondere Descartes, die Idee der modernen Wissenschaft als rationales (und rationalistisches) Projekt präsentieren, indem sie vollbekannte Topoi verwenden, die zum ästhetischen und literarischen Imaginären der Renaissance gehören. Das Werk von Descartes, als Werkstatt eines epistemischen und deutlich formulierten Rationalitätsentwurf wird sich endlich als der Ort zeigen, wo literarische und künstliche Topoi in epistemischen Figuren verwandelt werden.

Interchange, 2005

The notion of imagination is central to our contemporary western conception of and valuing of art. Yet the conception of imagination upon which this valuing rests is based on certain assumptions about art-making and about persons. Imagination refers to the creation of an idea or artifact from the mind of the creator. That a work of art arises from the imagination of an artist is thus taken to mean that the work is a reflection of the person's individuality, an authentic product of the artist's inner being. As such is will be marked by originality since each person is unique. There is, moreover, a belief that external constraints on the imagination of the artist are inhibiting and that she should be free to express her visions or emotions without constraints. Historically, however, the centrality of imagination viewed in this way has been the product of gradual development. This paper examines one particularly important moment in this development, that is, the Renaissance in Italy. By examining the changes in the nature, practice, and conception of art during this period, the paper probes the changing assumptions about the connection between imagination and art.

Вісник НАУ. Серія: Філософія. Культурологія., 2014

The aim of this article is to explain the role of imagination in human life, as it was understood by Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola. First, I analyze the cognitive function of imagination. Then, I discuss its place within the intellectual powers, its misleading character, and its ability of causing emotions. Finally, I try to point at the ways of controlling it by reason and using it by man for their own purposes.

The Problem with Imagination. The Concept of "Phantasia-imaginatio" in Renaissance and Baroque Art Theory (Kłopot z wyobraźnią. Pojęcie "phantasia-imaginatio" w teorii twórczości renesansu i baroku., 2018

The book Kłopot z wyobraźnią. Pojęcie phantasia-imaginatio w teorii twórczości renesansu i baroku [The Problem with Imagination. The Concept of Phantasia-Imaginatio in Renaissance and Baroque Art Theory] presents the history and significance of the categories of imagination and fantasy in early modern theoretical discussions on poetics, rhetoric and arts. The monograph argues that the idea of phantasia-imaginatio had considerable relevance in early modern aesthetics and, consequently , challenges the stereotypical conviction that the notion of imagination did not play an important role in the aesthetic thought of that period, i.e. that it was only a rather marginal concept subordinated to the obligatory doctrine of mimesis, with its prevailing principle of rational creation, which should engage higher cognitive capacities, and, above all, intellect and reason. The primary sources discussed in the book include predominantly 16 th and 17 th century theories of literature, while philosophical reflection and early modern theories of art (especially of arti del disegno) provide them with an important and indispensable frame of reference. In Renaissance and Baroque discussions on art and poetry the terms fantasy and imagination are used interchangeably. In different approaches they can signify: the faculty of the soul responsible for creating images, the capacity of retention and re-composing sensible images and the power enabling the production of imaginary beings. The latter function of imagination is particularly stressed in Late Renaissance vanguard theories of artistic creation. Phantasia-imaginatio is defined also as the inventive power of the artist, as a necessary ability, which makes possible the process of visualisation (i.e. seeing images 'in the mind's eye'), and, finally,

1983

I shall show first, through the examination of texts dating from 1490-1492, that when Leonardo begins to ‘make science’ he adopts an explanatory model of a mechanical-percussive kind that he will substitute in a few years’ time with another of an optical-perspective kind. The result of this substitution is a peculiar mixture, based on a metaphysical conception of the «point» as a very real «spiritual power» similar to the soul, invisible and incorporeal because infinitely small, that by moving brings about space and the visible world and all natural effects and that can be worked out mathematically with the tools of perspective. The adoption of this model causes the level of appearances to lose its original and stable character and become derivative and uncertain. I shall then show the tension that arises when the model of «pyramidal power» as «spiritual power» is concretely extended to the explanation of appearances. On the one hand, Leonardo tends to think of the «pyramid» as a real expansion of the metaphysical «point» and thus as an entity really existing in nature; on the other hand, the difficulties he encounters push him to consider it, in line with the perspective tradition, as a mere proportion between two measures (for example, weight and speed,or volume and distance), and thus as an abstract measure.

According to the traditional view, the notion of imagination in early modern aesthetics was a rather marginal and subsidiary concept within the classical doctrine of mimesis dominated by rules and reason. The present paper raises some doubts about this well-established opinion. It argues that even if imagination in early modern aesthetics did not play as prominent role as in Romantic poetics, the concept had significant relevance. It presents one important episode from the Renaissance debate on imagination, which arose from the sixteenth century literary quarrel over the artistic quality and the uncertain genre of Dante's Commedia. Its main distinctive category was " fantastic imitation " — a concept derived from Plato, yet misunderstood and thus transformed.

This thesis examines the problems and paradoxes relating to the role of imagination in human thinking and creativity. The aim of this study is to come to an understanding of the imagination not as a separate ‘faculty’ of the human mind and, as such, inferior to reason, but rather reappraises imagination as fundamental for human cognition. This enquiry considers the proposition that human cognition - the mind - functions in conjunction with the workings of the human body and brain. The enquiry is divided into three parts. Part One reconsiders the discussion of the imagination in philosophy, with a particular examination of Immanuel Kant. Part Two explores the role of imagination and the biological sciences in writings on art and aesthetics. The development of the discipline of art history is, thus, re-examined from the biological approaches employed in eighteenth-nineteenth-and early twentieth-century art writings. Part Three analyses theories of the evolution of the human species in relation to the role of the imagination. The coevolution of the human body, brain and mind is investigated and, subsequently, discussed as the basis for human creativity and art. In conclusion, the incorporation of a biological approach to art history is advocated.

Revista Letras UFSM, 2019

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the conceptual significance of "imagination" was indebted primarily to Aristotle's theory of the phantasia, translated as imaginatio and thoroughly discussed in treatises on poetry, rhetoric and philosophy. In this text, I intend to briefly explore some ideas concerning the historical specificity of the notion of "imagination" in Renaissance poetics, attempting to avoid a transhistorical approach to the study of poetry and its interpretation. In order to do this, I will present specific passages from Philip Sidney's The Defense of Poetry (1595), Francis Bacon's The Advancement of Learning (1605) and Shakespeare's works.

An-Icon Journal, 2022

Vilém Flusser uses the concept of illusion in a non-systematic way, resulting in two ostensible contra- dictions. First of all, he often uses the term illusion, while criticizing the metaphysic assumptions that it implies; sec- ondly, he seems to both dispraise and value the illusionary nature of technical images. This article aims at clarifying Flusser’s thoughts on illusion in the belief that they are not as conflicting as they might seem at first. In fact, when Flusser deplores the risk of de- ception associated with technical images, he refers to the illusion of transparency. He does not oppose the concept of illusion to a supposed objective truth, on the contrary, he opposes the illusion of the objective nature of images to the awareness of their constructed and mediated character. However, a rational demystification of illu- sions is not a viable option, since, according to Flusser, they are the result of a voluntary self-deception: we suppress our critical thinking because we cannot bear its complexity, we want images to “release us from the necessity for conceptual, explanatory thought.” This is why Flusser thinks that aware illusion – in other words: fiction – can help us overcome our “inertia of happiness” and develop a critical imagination.