What is the source of our imagination? Where do the images or representations of our imaginations come from? Are we entirely autonomous and self-governed in terms of what we (can/not) imagine? Is it perhaps a unique talent that some are born with while others are considered ‘less creative’? Or is imagination a skill that can be trained … Continue reading Role of Imagination: Social Imaginary
Imagination Matters
What are the risks of a failed imagination? And what does it mean for the imagination to fail? What conditions foster imagination, and in what environment does imagination wither? Philosophers have engaged with the question of imagination for thousands of years, often placing it as a structure somewhere between bodily sensations and intellectual thought. If … Continue reading Imagination Matters
Crisis of Meaning as Crisis of Imagination
If storytelling is the human way of creating a meaningful whole out of fragmented moments, then a crisis of meaning signals a crisis of story - in other words, a crisis of narrative. But how do we come up with stories? I do not mean this or that particular content, but the plots and combinations … Continue reading Crisis of Meaning as Crisis of Imagination
Melancholy: Brief History
What does melancholy mean? That depends on whom and when you ask. For example, the Cambridge Dictionary tell us that melancholy is "sadness that lasts for a long period of time, often without any obvious reason". If we consult the word's etymology - Greek melankholia, from melas, melan- ‘black’ + kholē ‘bile’ - we are brought back to its long history of medical theory, as it developed from the ancient, … Continue reading Melancholy: Brief History
Whose Monster Is It Anyway?
“Most strangers, gods and monsters - along with various ghosts, phantoms and doubles who bear a family resemblance - are, deep down, tokens of fracture within the human psyche. They speak to us of how we are split between conscious and unconscious, familiar and unfamiliar, same and other. And they remind us that we have … Continue reading Whose Monster Is It Anyway?
Problem With Scapegoating
Have you noticed how, sometimes, a little too often, scapegoating someone or some group of people is used as a political solution to a national identity crisis? It seems the hope is that finding an external 'foe' and offloading all 'our' problems on them as the purported cause of our woes should help bolster people's … Continue reading Problem With Scapegoating
Thoughts on Embodied Understanding and Carnal Hermeneutics
When things are in your mind, are they also in your body? If yes, is your body anything more than a physical container for your mind? If not, how can there be things like painful memories, hurtful words or wounds of history? Western traditions of thought have a long history of contrasting mind and body. … Continue reading Thoughts on Embodied Understanding and Carnal Hermeneutics
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