ABSTRACT
To imagine that I am rich is not to learn that I am rich, and to imagine riding a bike is not to know how to ride one. How can indulgent imagination lead to anything as serious as learning? Despite the unpromising contrast, some pathways to learning pass through the imagination; some even start with it. And imagination is not merely a cause of our learning; sometimes it helps justify our claim to have learned.1 Imagination can also be a source of ignorance and error, as we shall see. There are distinct pathways to imagining itself. There are internally generated or auton-
omous imaginings, as when I decide to imagine being rich, or find myself imagining it; there are externally guided imaginings, where I imagine the life of a millionaire as described in a novel, movie or play. Both kinds of imagining are constrained: all imaginings are constrained internally by the dependence of imagination on other mental and bodily systems, while guided imaginings are constrained by the material, often a narrative, which is their source. These constraints are crucial to understanding how learning from imagination is possible.
