Technics and Enaction: A Philosophy of Imagination

by milien Dereclenne

Overview

Providing an innovative approach to conceptualising imagination or creativity, this book offers an alternative concept of imagination to the classical internalist and representationalist theory.

Émilien Dereclenne argues that contemporary conceptions of imagination and creativity in the field of cognitive science, are guilty of a kind of dualism between mind and technics. Combining enacted, embodied, ecological, extended, embedded (5e) cognitive theories with material anthropology and the French philosophy of technics and imagination, Dereclenne challenges this approach. Instead, he highlights the role of technical and socio-material engagement in imaginative and creative processes. In doing so, he brings enactive philosophers like Lambros Malafouris, Shaun Gallagher and Ezequiel Di Paolo into dialogue with the philosophy of André Leroi Gourhan, Gilbert Simondon and Bernard Stiegler in order to showcase how French philosophers of technics can help 5E cognitive sciences further explore their theories of imagination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350507630
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/17/2026
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Émilien Dereclenne is Doctor of Philosophy, Epistemology and History of Science. He undertook his PhD at University of Technology of Compiègne, France, and is also a professional baroque and jazz cellist.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Enacting Imagination

Part I
1. Technics: A Blind Spot
2. Avoiding Representationalism and Internalism

Part II
3. Articulating Life, Imagination and Technics
4. Materializing Imagination
5. Anchoring Imagination

Part III
6. Situating Imagination
7. Imagination Reconsidered
Conclusion: Re-explaining Imagination

Bibliography