This dissertation explores the imagination, but more particularly, the ability to imagine being someone else. The notion of imagination itself is complex, and numerous schools propound various theories about this capacity. Are there distinctions, e.g., between imagining, supposing, pretending, believing, and visualizing? We attempt to clarify the distinctions in order to provide a foundation for the principal topic of the dissertation: transpersonal imagination. ;Now, we take the notion of imagi…
Read moreThis dissertation explores the imagination, but more particularly, the ability to imagine being someone else. The notion of imagination itself is complex, and numerous schools propound various theories about this capacity. Are there distinctions, e.g., between imagining, supposing, pretending, believing, and visualizing? We attempt to clarify the distinctions in order to provide a foundation for the principal topic of the dissertation: transpersonal imagination. ;Now, we take the notion of imagining being another for granted in practical and philosophical discourse alike. There are, however, difficulties in this notion, such as those relating to identity, to the notions of an 'I', and of the 'self'. Can we imagine being another without a clear notion of who we are ourselves, what constitutes us, or of what constitutes the 'I'? ;Once we examine this point, we then undertake a twofold discussion that explores the topic more fully: first, what is involved, philosophically, in imagining being another? Expounding the notions of sympathy and empathy will elucidate the matter and allow us to consider the second part of the issue: to what extent, given the notions of imagination and self examined heretofore, is transpersonal imagination possible? ;Philosophy is often most interesting when the theoretical meets the practical, and among the practical applications of the study is its relevance to human relationships. People constantly invoke the taken-for-granted capacity to 'imagine being in another's shoes,' and the dissertation, laying throughout the theoretical groundwork for transpersonal imagination, culminates with a treatment of friendship and love. We first, as always, attempt to clarify the terms; we then delineate the theoretical issues related to friendship and love; and finally, we argue for the centrality of transpersonal imagination to these concepts, and to human relations in general. ;The dissertation, being an open-spirited exploration, concludes with no definitive, categorical position or set of truths. But having studied the imagination, the metaphysics of identity and a theory of self, the transpersonal imagination, and then applied them to friendship and love, we can claim at least a clearer understanding of a significant part of the essence of our very humanity