This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.
Imagination will remain a mystery--we will not be able to explain imagination--until we can break it into parts we already understand. Explaining Imagination is a guidebook for doing just that, where the parts are other ordinary mental states like beliefs, desires, judgments, and decisions. In different combinations and contexts, these states constitute cases of imagining. This reductive approach to imagination is at direct odds with the current orthodoxy, according to which imagination is a sui generis mental state or process--one with its own inscrutable principles of operation. Explaining Imagination upends that view, showing how, on closer inspection, the imaginings at work in hypothetical reasoning, pretense, the enjoyment of fiction, and creativity are reducible to other familiar mental states--judgments, beliefs, desires, and decisions among them. Crisscrossing contemporary philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and aesthetics, Explaining Imagination argues that a clearer understanding of imagination is already well within reach.
Industry Reviews
The centerpiece of Explaining Imagination is a brilliantly articulated theory of the imagination, a theory that challenges many preconceptions and provides what will no doubt be an orienting landmark for future work in the area [...] The book contains a number of additional treasures, including especially innovative accounts of pretense, fiction, and creativity. These other accounts [...] will no doubt have an influence that extends well beyond readers who are principally interested in questions about the metaphysical nature of the imagination. * Christopher Hill, Analysis Reviews *
With arguments that are innovative, sophisticated, and provocative, Explaining Imagination provides a comprehensive defense of Langland-Hassan's reductionist approach to imagination. I myself have profited greatly from this challenge to the philosophical orthodoxy, and the discussion of the book has already begun shaping directions of future research. A must-read not just for philosophers interested in imagination, but also for those interested in more general questions about our taxonomy of mind. * Amy Kind, Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College *
Explaining Imagination is a pleasure to read. Both lucid and sophisticated, it seems to anticipate every potential challenge Langland-Hassan's account might face. It also adduces arguments that are relevant not only to defending his account, but also to specific debates about the nature of imagining. Explaining Imagination is thus a significant philosophical achievement, and in my opinion, will soon be a mainstay of research into the metaphysics and psychology of imagination. * Alon Chasid, Bar-Ilan University *
