[SydPhil] REMINDER: Matherne | The Role of Imagination in Kant’s Theory of Empirical Concept Formation | UNSW | 29 November 2019

[Melissa Merritt]

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The Role of Imagination in Kant’s Theory of Empirical Concept Formation

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Abstract:  Many have worried that Kant’s theory of empirical concept formation is circular.  His account of the process through which we generate concept appears to presuppose the very concepts that are supposed to be generated.  A number of commentators have attempted to rescue Kant’s view by appealing to the role that imagination plays in this process.  According to this line of thought, it is not concepts, but rather a certain representation of imagination, e.g., a so-called ‘schema’ (Longuenesse, Allison) or an associative disposition (Ginsborg), that Kant presupposes for this process.  While I think that this general strategy, viz., appealing to imagination, is key to understanding why Kant’s account of empirical concept formation is not circular, in this paper I argue that the role of imagination in this process has been misunderstood.  My aim in this paper is thus to clarify Kant’s account of the contribution of imagination to empirical concept formation and how this helps avoid the charge of circularity.


Bio:    Samantha Matherne is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University.  She specializes in Kant, Neo-Kantianism, Phenomenology, and Aesthetics.  She is the author of Cassirer (forthcoming) for the Routledge Philosophers Series.  She is currently writing a book about Kant’s theory of imagination and she is exploring the aesthetic theory of the phenomenologist Edith Landmann-Kalischer.













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 Speaker:   Assistant Professor  Samantha Matherne, Harvard University



Event Details:

Friday, 29 November 2019

12:30-2:00 pm
Room 310, Morven Brown

Kensington Campus, UNSW



This is a free event, all welcome.

Map reference: C20

Contact: Melissa Merritt
e: m.merritt at unsw.edu.au<mailto:m.merritt at unsw.edu.au>













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