Intuition, Imagination, and Philosophical Methodology

by Tamar Szabo Gendler

Overview

Tamar Gendler draws together in this book a series of essays in which she investigates philosophical methodology, which is now emerging as a central topic of philosophical discussions. Three intertwined themes run through the volume: imagination, intuition and philosophical methodology. Each of the chapters focuses, in one way or another, on how we engage with subject matter that we take to be imaginary. This theme is explored in a wide range of cases, including scientific thought experiments, early childhood pretense, thought experiments concerning personal identity, fictional emotions, self-deception, Gettier cases, and the general relation of conceivability to possibility. Each of the chapters explores, in one way or another, the implications of this for how thought experiments and appeals to intuition can serve as mechanisms for supporting or refuting scientific or philosophical claims. And each of the chapters self-consciously exhibits a particular philosophical methodology: that of drawing both on empirical findings from contemporary psychology, and on classic texts in the philosophical tradition (particularly the work of Aristotle and Hume.) By exploring and exhibiting the fruitfulness of these interactions, Gendler promotes the value of engaging in such cross-disciplinary conversations in illuminating philosophical issues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199683154
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/24/2013
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	374
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Tamar Szabó Gendler is a professor of philosophy and chair of the Cognitive Science Program at Yale University

Table of Contents

PrefaceIntroductionPart I: Thought Experiments, Intuitions and Philosophical MethodologyThought Experiments in Science1. Galileo and the Indispensability of Scientific Thought Experiment2. Thought Experiments Rethought - and ReperceivedThought Experiments and Personal Identity3. Exceptional Persons: On the Limits of Imaginary Cases4. Personal Identity and Thought-ExperimentsIntuitions and Philosophical Methodology5. The Real Guide to Fake Barns: A Catalogue of Gifts for Your Epistemic Enemies6. Philosophical Thought Experiments, Intuitions and Cognitive EquilibriumPart II: Pretense, Imagination and BeliefImaginative Resistance7. The Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance8. Imaginative Resistance RevisitedPretense and Belief9. On the Relation between Pretense and Belief10. Self-Deception as PretenseImagination and Emotion11. Genuine Rational Fictional Emotions12. Imaginary ContagionBelief and Alief13. Alief and Belief14. Alief in Action (and Reaction)

Editorial Reviews

"The style of Tamar Szab Gendler is exceptionally accessible, I am certain that every academic reader will benefit from her work: classical psychologists may find her alief/belief distinction helpful, and theoretically inclined literary scholars will find a treasure in her psychological account of imaginative resistance. I cannot imagine a better overview of of Szab 's work than this." —Metapsychology

From the Publisher