The productive and aesthetic imagination
Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
Oxford University Press eBooks October 26, 2023 DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198830023.003.0004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that aesthetic imagination and productive imagination are crucial to philosophical appreciation of imaginative capacities. Contends that 18th-century aesthetics, moving from a philosophy of perception to the perception of beauty in nature and art, inspired Romantic devotion to imagination, and that Kant's and his successors' formulation of the productive imagination opened exploration of its role in human creativity. |
Abstract
Abstract This chapter elaborates the concepts of aesthetic imagination and productive imagination as crucial to the philosophical appreciation of imaginative capacities. The rise of aesthetics in the 18th century, shifting from a philosophy of perception to focus on the perception of beauty in nature and art, would come to inspire an ecstatic devotion to imagination on the part of Romantic writers and thinkers. The chapter outlines the rise of aesthetic philosophy in Alexander Baumgarten, Edmund Burke, and Immanuel Kant, and the influence of aesthetics of the beautiful and the sublime on the Romantic reverence for imagination. The formulation of the productive imagination by Kant and philosophers in his wake facilitated exploration of its role in human creativity.