Imagination and Truth

In dialogue with contemporary continental and Anglo-American philosophers, John V. Garner explores the ancient idea that imagination can disclose something of our reality. Inspired in particular by Plato, Aristotle, Proclus, and Islamic Neoplatonism, this book argues that, far from a personal activity project by the psyche, the act of imagining is a creative discovery.

Examining the basic principles of this ancient understanding of imagination in the first chapter, Garner then proceeds to test and redevelop the concept through engagement with seminal thinkers including Jean-Paul Sartre, Susanne K. Langer, Cornelius Castoriadis, and others. Building a more nuanced picture of disclosive imagination, he analyses such views as Langer's, on imagination's role in uncovering structures of everyday experience that transcend language, and moreover the multifaceted debates surrounding poetic imagination in the work of Paul Ricœur and R. J. Collingwood.

But what does this mean for creativity today? Far beyond a history of imagination, The Philosophy of Disclosive Imagination proposes two significant consequences of this concept. Asserting first that the idea of disclosive imagination allows for fresh understanding of global traditions, cultures, and art as creating and disclosing truths we can learn from, Garner further makes an urgent call for genuine public spaces. Such spaces, Garner contends - from inclusive public areas to education - are crucial in enabling society to collectively discern and engage with the truths that imagination discloses.