On picturing a candle: the prehistory of imagery science
The past 25 years have seen a rapid growth of knowledge about brain mechanisms involved in visual mental imagery. These advances have largely been made independently of the long history of philosophical – and even psychological – reckoning with imagery and its parent concept ‘imagination’. We sugges...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2016-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00515/full |
| _version_ | 1818065017910591488 |
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| author | Matthew eMacKisack Susan eAldworth Fiona eMacpherson John eOnians Crawford eWinlove Adam eZeman |
| author_facet | Matthew eMacKisack Susan eAldworth Fiona eMacpherson John eOnians Crawford eWinlove Adam eZeman |
| author_sort | Matthew eMacKisack |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The past 25 years have seen a rapid growth of knowledge about brain mechanisms involved in visual mental imagery. These advances have largely been made independently of the long history of philosophical – and even psychological – reckoning with imagery and its parent concept ‘imagination’. We suggest that the view from these empirical findings can be widened by an appreciation of imagination’s intellectual history, and we seek to show how that history both created the conditions for – and presents challenges to – the scientific endeavour. We focus on the neuroscientific literature’s most commonly used task - imagining a concrete object – and, after sketching what is known of the neurobiological mechanisms involved, we examine the same basic act of imagining from the perspective of several key positions in the history of philosophy and psychology. We present positions that, firstly, contextualise and inform the neuroscientific account, and secondly, pose conceptual and methodological challenges to the scientific analysis of imagery. We conclude by reflecting on the intellectual history of visualisation in the light of contemporary science, and the extent to which such science may resolve long-standing theoretical debates. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T14:45:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e3806f4a32714f14b2cf8d207cb472eb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T14:45:13Z |
| publishDate | 2016-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-e3806f4a32714f14b2cf8d207cb472eb2022-12-22T01:44:36ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782016-04-01710.3389/fpsyg.2016.00515181973On picturing a candle: the prehistory of imagery scienceMatthew eMacKisack0Susan eAldworth1Fiona eMacpherson2John eOnians3Crawford eWinlove4Adam eZeman5University of ExeterUniversity of YorkUniversity of GlasgowUniversity of East AngliaUniversity of ExeterUniversity of ExeterThe past 25 years have seen a rapid growth of knowledge about brain mechanisms involved in visual mental imagery. These advances have largely been made independently of the long history of philosophical – and even psychological – reckoning with imagery and its parent concept ‘imagination’. We suggest that the view from these empirical findings can be widened by an appreciation of imagination’s intellectual history, and we seek to show how that history both created the conditions for – and presents challenges to – the scientific endeavour. We focus on the neuroscientific literature’s most commonly used task - imagining a concrete object – and, after sketching what is known of the neurobiological mechanisms involved, we examine the same basic act of imagining from the perspective of several key positions in the history of philosophy and psychology. We present positions that, firstly, contextualise and inform the neuroscientific account, and secondly, pose conceptual and methodological challenges to the scientific analysis of imagery. We conclude by reflecting on the intellectual history of visualisation in the light of contemporary science, and the extent to which such science may resolve long-standing theoretical debates.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00515/fullImaginationfMRIPhilosophy of MindHistory of Psychologyvisual imageryHistory of Philosophy |
| spellingShingle | Matthew eMacKisack Susan eAldworth Fiona eMacpherson John eOnians Crawford eWinlove Adam eZeman On picturing a candle: the prehistory of imagery science Frontiers in Psychology Imagination fMRI Philosophy of Mind History of Psychology visual imagery History of Philosophy |
| title | On picturing a candle: the prehistory of imagery science |
| title_full | On picturing a candle: the prehistory of imagery science |
| title_fullStr | On picturing a candle: the prehistory of imagery science |
| title_full_unstemmed | On picturing a candle: the prehistory of imagery science |
| title_short | On picturing a candle: the prehistory of imagery science |
| title_sort | on picturing a candle the prehistory of imagery science |
| topic | Imagination fMRI Philosophy of Mind History of Psychology visual imagery History of Philosophy |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00515/full |
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