The Importance of Being Neutral: More on the Phenomenology and Metaphysics of Imagination

A Reply to Anne-Sophie Brüggen

Authors

Jérôme Dokic

dokic @ ehess.fr

Institute Jean Nicod

Paris, France

Margherita Arcangeli

argheritarcangeli @ gmail.com

Institute Jean Nicod, France

Commentator

Anne-Sophie Brüggen

anne-sophie.brueggen @ gmx.net

Editors

Thomas Metzinger

metzinger @ uni-mainz.de

Johannes Gutenberg-Universität

Mainz, Germany

Jennifer M. Windt

jennifer.windt @ monash.edu

Monash University

Melbourne, Australia

In this reply to Anne-Sophie Brüggen's comments to our target paper, we focus on three main issues. First, we explain that although our account of imaginative re-creation is in many respects metaphysically neutral, it allows for a taxonomy of imaginings that goes beyond mere phenomenological observations and pre-theoretical intuitions. Second, we defend our interpretation of the distinction between objective and subjective imagination and compare it with Brüggen's own suggestions involving the notion of an empty point of view. Third, we insist that the notion of experiential perspective should be construed broadly and include cognitive or belief-like imagination.

Keywords

Cognitive imagination | Empty point of view | Objective imagination | Phenomenology | Re-creation | Subjective imagination