Imagining what you intend
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Keywords

Imagery
Imagination
Intentions
Remembering

How to Cite

Imagining what you intend. (2024). Philosophy and the Mind Sciences, 5. https://doi.org/10.33735/phimisci.2024.10258

Abstract

If we are free to imagine what we choose, this is likely because our intentions determine what we are imagining.  However, in a recent article, Munro and Strohminger (2021) argue that, in some cases of imagistic imagining, our intentions do not determine what we are imagining.  They offer examples where, intuitively, a person intends to imagine one thing but, due to the causal source of the image used, imagine another.  This paper acknowledges the challenge posed by these cases while arguing on several grounds that, when present, intentions nevertheless always suffice to determine the object of one’s imaginings.  I conclude by explaining how intentions could fix the objects of episodic rememberings in much the same way as they do for imaginings, thereby bolstering the case that remembering is a kind of imagining.

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References

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