Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Imagination, philosophy: imaginations are mental representations of non-present situations, events, states, sensory perceptions, experiences with certain characteristics, tones, sound sequences, sounds, noises, voices, smells, heat, coldness etc. The imagination of something undefined is not possible. Understanding a sentence can create an idea of the corresponding situation or image. See also representations past, future, mental states._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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V. Flusser on Imagination - Dictionary of Arguments
I 114 Image/Imagination/Flusser: Reduction of dimension is motivated by the will to change the world and consequently by the tendency to beauty. >Beauty, >Reduction. Such a description, however, requires a new definition of "imagination": inference from two to four dimensions. Pictogram, for example. Stick figures in the frame: suggests a four-dimensional scene. >Images/Flusser. I 115 On the other hand: Ideogram: H - O - H (representation of the molecular composition instead of the symbol H2O. Definition Imagination: is then not only the ability to create similarities, but also the ability to imagine the relationships between objects of the world as relations of symbols on the surface. >Symbols. Def Imagination: proposing and accepting an agreement. One does not take pictures to imitate a known situation, but to make an unknown one imaginable. >Understanding, >Conceivability. I 116 The agreement is: "Reality" is designed to become flat when you abstract the depth, and stands still when you abstract time from it. I 117 Imagination is not a solitary activity because of the agreement. >Convention, >Intersubjectivity. Imagination/Flusser: we are not aware that the imaginary relationships "above" and "right" which arrange the symbols in the picture are as conventional as the relationships in the morse alphabet. We are programmed to "believe" in images, i. e. not to see them as mediations, but as images. I 123 Imagination II: Images are designed to recognize the world that has become unrecognizable: maps. >Map-example. Then the world begins to be experienced as an image, i.e. to mirror the categories of the image. In it life becomes horrible, from now on the images must serve a strategy of escaping the horrible and function as magical tools. >Magical thinking. Only when the images begin to lose their "magical dimension" as a mediation between the world and humans and become opaque will the age of imagination be over. The pictures form a wall that closes people off from the world of experiences. >Opacity. The world becomes "phantom-like", "fantastic". This development from the imaginary to the fantastic can be seen in the Aztecs or, individually, in paranoiacs. The emergence of the linear text must have been perceived as a relief here. >Texts/Flusser. I 161 Concept/perception/Flusser: We are constantly trying to imagine terms, to comprehend this idea, and then to make this concept conceivable again. >Concepts/Flusser. This overbidding of imagination through conception and vice versa, in which images become conceptual (concept art) and texts "imaginary" (science fiction) is an important aspect of today's "crisis of art". >Art, >Fictions, >Literature._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Fl I V. Flusser Kommunikologie Mannheim 1996 |
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> Counter arguments against Flusser
> Counter arguments in relation to Imagination
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-18