Imagination and Social Perspectives: Approaches from Phenomenology and Psychopathology(Routledge Research in Phenomenology)

Our experience of other individuals as minded beings goes hand in hand with the awareness that they have a unique epistemic and emotional perspective on the experienced objects and situations. The same object can be seen from many different points of view, an event can awaken different emotional reactions in different individuals, and our position-takings can in part be mediated by our belonging to some social or cultural groups. All these phenomena can be described by referring to the metaphor of perspective. Assuming that there are different, and irreducible, perspectives we can take on the experienced world, and on others as experiencing the same world, the phenomenon of mutual understanding can consistently be understood in terms of perspectival flexibility. This edited volume investigates the different processes in which perspectival flexibility occurs in social life and particularly focuses on the constitutive role of imagination in such processes. It includes original works in philosophy and psychopathology showing how perspectival flexibility and social cognition are grounded on the interplay of direct perception and imagination.

Table of Contents:
1. Imagination and Social Perspectives. Approaches from Phenomenology and Psychopathology Michela Summa, Thomas Fuchs, and Luca Vanzago Section I: Imagination and the As-If: Experiencing Multiple Realities 2. Imagining Oneself Andrea Altobrando 3. Experiencing Reality and Fiction: Discontinuity and Permeability Michela Summa 4. As-if I Were You: Imagining the Other in Aesthetic Experience from Kant to Husserl Serena Feloj Section II: Imagination and Intersubjectivity in Psychopathology 5. The "As-if" Function and Its Loss in Schizophrenia Thomas Fuchs 6. Intersubjective Expression in Autism and Schizophrenia Till Grohmann 7. The Phenomenology of Intersubjective Reality in Schizophrenia Zeno Van Duppen Section III: Imagination and the Experience of Others 8. Spinoza on the Role of Feelings, Imagination and Knowledge in Sex, Love, and Social Life Rudolf Bernet 9. Sartre and the Role of Imagination in Mutual Understanding Jens Bonnermann 10. Intersubjectivity and Imagination. On Merleau-Ponty’s Conception of Intercorporeality as Foundation of Community Luca Vanzago 11. The Minded Other and the Work of the Imagination Anita Avramides 12. Empathy without Simulation Matthew Ratcliffe Section IV: The Sociality of Imagination 13. Collective Imagination: A Normative Account Thomas Szanto 14. Shared imagining: Beyond extension, distribution, and commitment Julia Jansen 15. Beyond the Dichotomy of "Social Direct Perception" and "Simulation Theory". Scheler’s Account of Social Cognition Revisited Emanuele Caminada Section V. Aesthetic, Ethical, and Socio-Political Grounds of Perspective-Taking 16. We-Perspective on Aesthetic Grounds: Gemeinsinn and Übereinstimmung in Kant and Wittgenstein Silvana Borutti 17. Social Perspectivity. From the Anonymous Social Order to Individual and Social Awareness Karl Mertens 18. The Ethico-Political Turn of Phenomenology. Reflections on Otherness in Husserl and Levinas Matthias Flatscher and Sergej Seitz

About the Author :
Michela Summa is a post-doc researcher and lecturer at the Philosophy Department of Julius Maximilians Universität Würzburg. Research interests include: the phenomenology of sensible experience, the phenomenology and the psychopathology of self- and other-experience, the phenomenology of memory and imagination, aesthetic and ontology of fiction. Thomas Fuchs is Karl Jaspers Professor of Philosophy and Psychiatry at Heidelberg University, Germany. Areas of expertise: phenomenological philosophy, psychology and psychopathology, with a focus on embodiment, temporality, spatiality, and intersubjectivity. Clinical work focus: diagnosis, psychopathological assessment and treatment of adults with severe psychiatric disorders. Luca Vanzago is a professor of Theoretical Philosophy and of Theory of Knowledge at the University of Pavia, Italy. Areas of expertise: phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and ontology, with focus on temporality, bodily subjectivity, the experience of pain, and the "hard problem" of consciousness.

Review :
"This collection is welcome indeed since it draws into sharp relief the important but often overlooked connections among imagination, intersubjectivity, and perspective-taking of all kinds. While those schooled in the phenomenological tradition are well aware that these interlocking themes were of central concern to Husserl, Stein, Sartre and company, it has, with some exceptions, taken a little more time for analytical philosophers of mind and cognitive scientists to realize just how crucial perspective-taking is to understanding the structures and functions of consciousness . . . The book is highly recommended." — Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "An outstanding and innovative book, which absolutely needs to be read and studied by researchers and students." — Natalie Depraz, University of Rouen, France "This book covers a wide range of intriguing and original contributions to the role of imagination in perspective-taking, and the sociality of imagination." — Anika Fiebich, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany