Customer Reviews

Imagination and Time

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This book will probably appeal only to a limited audience: academics might find Warnock's treatment of the classical philosophical problem of the imagination lacking in rigour, while lay persons, on the other hand, might find parts of it too technical. Nevertheless, someone with a general interest in the nature of the imagination, its function in human existence, and its role in creating meaning, will find this a satisfying read, as I did. The author neither offers an own strictly delineated theory of the imagination, nor does she seek to systematically support or challenge existing theories. Instead she examines the nature of human imagination in order to stress its function in the creation of personal identity, history, and the meaning of time. (The imagination is variously described as the source of artistic creativity or genius, the ability to go on flights of fancy, or simply as the capacity for bringing before the mind's eye what is not currently present to it). To this end she draws on the ideas of various thinkers including the ancient Greeks, Enlightenment philosophers, Romantic poets and more. This exercise is already of value as a simple historical introduction to the problem of the imagination. Her main objective lies however in suggesting a unified view of the imagination, identity and time which will explain how human beings manage to engage creatively and productively with life: Warnock argues that the imagination, by unlocking both the present and the past, engenders a sense of personal continuity, and allows sympathetic identification with the human race as a whole. The imagination lets you feel a part of something that existed before your birth and that will continue after your death, and so gives relevance and therefore meaning to what people achieve in their own lifetimes. Her suggestion is that this view is an acceptable (and also necessary) metaphorical alternative to the outdated religious/ metaphysical conception of immortality. A sense of continuity with the past and the future, a sense that stretches further than that of a single lifetime, is needed for people to feel their lives worthwhile. Whether or not her argument convinces, some interesting lines of thought and discussion may follow from it. I found the style of writing lucid and the expositions of classical philosophical arguments accessible, although some points were perhaps over-clarified or pedestrian. The book will prove easy reading to anyone who has rudimentary familiarity with Continental philosophy and/ or Linguistic Analysis. Alternatively it could serve as a good introduction to someone interested in, but unfamiliar with, philosophical thinking. Whether it will prove enjoyable reading should depend on the interests of the particular reader: I personally think it will appeal more to the poetic than to the scientific personality. Although the book raises more questions than it pretends to or can answer, and despite not treating its subject as thoroughly and meticulously as it might have, it nevertheless provides for informative and stimulating reading.