Imagination in Inquiry

Imagination in Inquiry: A Philosophical Model and Its Applications investigates the nature, kinds, component elements, functions, scope, and uses of the imagination involved in inquiry. It further discusses how these kinds and functions vary and interact depending on the context of inquiries carried out in philosophy and its branches-from the philosophy of science and the philosophy of technology to ethics, sociopolitical philosophy, and aesthetics-and institutions like science, technology, art, and education. Using a homeostatic model, A. Pablo Iannone advances a conception of the imagination as a disposition to search for answers to various types of problems, abstract or concrete, theoretical or practical faced in inquiry. The book treats this as a working characterization, though it develops progressively clearer, more precise, and less ambiguous meanings. All along, the primary concern of the author-as well as of contributors Alejandra Iannone and Rocci Luppicini-is with the moral, aesthetic, logical, communicative, scientific, technological, artistic, literary, and philosophical uses and roles of the imagination. The book's primary focus is not just on such things as the capacity to generate mental images, but especially on the ability to discover and create, anticipate and envision, entertain and manage.

A. Pablo Iannone is emeritus professor of philosophy at Central Connecticut State University.

Part I: Conceptualizations
Chapter One: A Conceptual Cartography of Inquiry, the Imagination, and their Interconnected Roles
Chapter Two: Dynamics of the Imagination
Chapter Three: The Imagination's Elements: Motives, Abilities, Circumstances, Instruments, and Functions
Chapter Four: The Interactive Imagination
Part II: The Imagination: Philosophical And Practical
Chapter Five: The Philosophical Imagination
Chapter Six: Wonder, Reason, and the Imagination in Philosophical Inquiry Contrasted with Inquiry in Art, Literature, and Science
Chapter Seven: Inquiry and the Imagination's Balancing Act
Chapter Eight: Basic Philosophical Attitudes and the Imagination
Part III: Comparative Assessments
Chapter Nine: Feedback Loops, Today's World, and the Practical Imagination
Chapter Ten: Analogies and Disanalogies between the Roles of the Imagination in Inquiries in Philosophy, the Arts, Sciences, Other Branches of Inquiry, and Everyday Life
Part IV: Applications and Tests of This Book's Model
Chapter Elev