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Imagination

Imagination

idea

Aphantasia can be a gift to philosophers and critics like me

Aphantasia veils the past and the future from the mind’s eye. That can be a gift to philosophers like Derek Parfit and me

by Mette Leonard Høeg

Stories and literature

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Young women were the true originators of the Grimms’ Tales

Snow White, Rapunzel, Cinderella – the old fairy tales are full of female lust and hope, and most were told by women

by Christine Lehnen

Stories and literature

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There is an unseen smuggling operation between fiction and reality

Fiction is not quarantined from reality, as experts have long proposed. There is constant trade between the two worlds

by Daniele Molinari, Valentina Petrolini & Wolfgang Huemer

Philosophy of art

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Engaging with an artwork leaves you and the art transformed

When you engage with an artwork, a form of cognitive coupling takes place in which your mind and the art are transformed

by Miranda Anderson

The self

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You’re not a computer, you’re a tiny stone in a beautiful mosaic

Let’s ditch talk of computers and bank accounts. Positive mind-metaphors emphasise our embodied inter-connectedness

by Anna Katharina Schaffner

Neurodiversity

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I have no mind’s eye: let me try to describe it for you

With aphantasia, my mind’s eye sees only darkness, not images. It’s like missing a sense, and only imagination can compensate

by Neesa Sunar

Altered states

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Only by taking leave of our senses can we plunge into reverie

By letting meaning loose, allowing it to graze, we can revel in reverie, free of the tether that commonsense keeps tight

by Rachel Genn

History of ideas

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How Emil Utitz salvaged his humanity in a non-human world

Grounded in hope, Emil Utitz’s ‘as-if philosophy’ allowed him to transcend the non-human world of the Theresienstadt ghetto

by Tereza Matějčková