In this paper I trace Husserl's transformation of his notion of phantasy from its strong leanings towards empiricism into a transcendental phenomenology of imagination. Rejecting the view that this account is only more incompatible with contemporary neuroscientific research, I instead claim that the transcendental suspension of naturalistic (or scientific) pretensions precisely enables cooperation between the two distinct realms of phenomenology and science. In particular, a transcendental account of phantasy can disclose the specific accomplishments of imagination without prematurely deciding upon a particular scientific paradigm for its experimental investigation; a decision that is best left to the sciences themselves.
representation', the most basic term in Kant's transcendental philosophy, was, under the name 'idea', one of the most central notions of seventieth and eightieth century philosophical discourse. by the time Kant was developing his own account, the notion that the mind related to the world indirectly, through a 'veil of ideas' (if at all), and the particular conception of ideas as images held considerable ground in both rationalist and empiricist quarters-not only in britain but also in germany. Kant's redefinition of an 'idea' as a concept "surpassing the possibility of experience" (KrV, a 320/b 377), and thus as being nothing like an image, must therefore be understood as part of Kant's break with the standard view of his time.Kant preserves the generic sense of the term 'idea' in the equally generic term 'representation', but denies that sensible representations are, or are like, images ( Bilder). Instead, Kant describes them as 'intuitions ( Anschauungen)'. Far from being a terminological quibble, Kant's rejection of any 'image theory' and his introduction of a theory of intuitions again marks his departure from both german and british 'ways of ideas' in at least two important respects. First, the equation of sensible representations with images strongly encourages the view that they are passively received, so to speak 'ready-made'. Kant, however, maintains that intuitions are generated in complex syntheses, and hence require an active mind. Second, it strongly encourages the view that they replace external objects as direct objects of
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