The development of the concept of imagination from Plato and Aristotle to its introduction into English art educational theory

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Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to discover and to give an account oi the origins of the (Romantic) idea of imagination which dominates English art educational theory. Though I have written what is essentially the history of an idea, I have endeavoured throughout to relate the different aspects of "imagination” to concurrent philosophical, psychological, and aesthetic theories. My method has been to read in the original (i.e. translated) sources every­thing I could find on "imagination" and closely associated concepts and, with the occasional support of expert commentaries and commentaries, to establish the relationships and differences between these findings. No work of this type or scope has hitherto been undertaken though, inevitably, work has already been done on a few aspects of the subject, (notably by M.W. Bundy and M. Wenock), so that though I cannot claim that all this thesis is entirely original, all of its seven parts contain men original work, and Parts 3,4, and 5 arc largely original.
I have sought to demonstrate that "imagination" is an ancient and very broadly used concept which enjoys a prominent place in often-contradictory theoretical systems and that its contradictions, s teeming largely from Platonic metaphysics Aristotelian philosophy of mind, and even elemental cosmology, compounded and unresolved throughout subsequent history, have entered English art educational theory. The separate parts of this thesis are chronologically based this being to my mind the simplest and most direct way of dealing with the subject matter. Thus the study starts with Plato, including reflection to pre-Socratic myths, and Aristotle, traces the developing theory of imagination through Antiquity and the Middle Ages, with particular reference to Christian theology; moves to an examination of "imagination" in Renaissance magic, comparing and relating this.to the theory of art from Alberti onwards; considers the philosophers of the 17th century with specific concentration on place of "imagin­ation" in their theories, and examines the Romantic and pre-Romantic, philosophical, psychological, and aesthetic theories of imagination. Finally there is an account of some of the subsequent 19th century developments in Existentialism and Phenomenology. My conclusion is that because of the great breadth of interpretation that "imagination" bears, its undefined use at the heart of art educational theory can only perpetuate the obfuscation that exists there.

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