The Creative Side of Recreative Imagination

Abstract

The philosophical literature suggests two basic kinds of imagination, namely creative and recreative imagination. While the former is taken to underlie creativity, the latter is at work when we project ourselves into another situation. Fiction is an interesting context where both kinds would be involved: producing fictional works would require creative imagination, whereas engaging with them would paradigmatically call for recreative imagination. This contribution aims at clarifying how creative and recreative imagination are related, thus shedding light on the cognitive underpinnings of fiction. It has been claimed that creative imagination is more fundamental, even from a phylogenetic point of view, than recreative imagination. It will be objected that this claim relies on a questionable definition of recreative imagination, which makes it too closely tied to perspective-taking. The critique will question the existence of creative imagination itself: it is an unnecessary posit to account for creativity. Creativity instead includes recreative imagination as one of its necessary ingredients.