Emotion and mental imagery.

Both emotions and mental imagery play a crucially important role in our mental life and both have played a central role in understanding a wide variety of mental processes. But, somewhat surprisingly, there has not been any attempt in philosophy to examine how these two mental phenomena interact. Mental imagery has traditionally been understood as an emotion-free state and in the discussion of emotions the concept of mental imagery is rarely brought up. The present research project aims to explore the rich and varied interactions between emotions and mental imagery, which we think has important benefits both for the study of emotions and for the study of mental imagery. The central motivation behind it is that understanding how emotions and mental imagery are intertwined is not only of philosophical interest, but that it can also contribute to debates in psychology, cognitive science and even in some forms of clinical practices.

Keywords:MENTAL IMAGERY, IMAGINATION, EMOTION

Disciplines:Cognitive neuroscience, Philosophical psychology, Philosophy of medical and biomedical sciences, Philosophy of mind, Analytical philosophy

Project type:Collaboration project