TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF IMAGINATION: A STUDY OF GILBERT DURAND AND PAUL RICOEUR | Posted on:1982-06-05 | Degree:Ph.D | Type:Dissertation | University:McGill University (Canada) | Candidate:JOY, MAVOURNEEN MARY | Full Text:PDF | GTID:1475390017464778 | Subject:Philosophy | Abstract/Summary: | | A satisfactory definition of the imagination has proved elusive in Western philosophy. Two contemporary French thinkers, Gilbert Durand and Paul Ricoeur, are concerned with establishing a fundamental philosophy of imagination. For Durand the imagination is the source of symbolic mediations that are both therapeutic and theophanic. His theory is grounded in a Platonist-esoteric tradition which he supports by a philosophy of the imaginal (coined and articulated by Henry Corbin, a French Islamicist). Ricoeur, in contrast, sees the imagination as a creative cognitive mediator in a dialectic model of knowledge. Within a critical framework the imagination functions at the limits of experience and expression as a catalyst provoking new insights and ways of being. Both theories support a philosophy that rehabilitates the imagination from its former denigrated and suspect categorizations, though Ricoeur's programme is more relevant to contemporary philosophical issues. | Keywords/Search Tags: | Imagination, Philosophy, Durand | | Related items |
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