Conclusion

Abstract

Abstract This chapter summarizes the author’s systematic interpretation of Kant’s theory of imagination in light of two questions. The first question is what it is to imagine. It recapitulates the author’s argument to the effect that, for Kant, to imagine is to exercise a cognitive capacity that belongs to sensibility and that is tasked with mediating between sensibility and understanding. The second question is what use is it to imagine. Here the chapter references the author’s interpretation of Kant’s account of the theoretical use of imagination in ordinary perception and experience; the aesthetic use of imagination in our engagement with beauty, art, and sublimity; and the practical use of imagination in our pursuit of happiness and morality. It concludes with some considerations about why the Kantian theory of imagination is still of interest today.