Lack of Imagination: Individual Differences in Mental Imagery and the Significance of Consciousness

Abstract

Ensconced in the armchair, a philosopher of mind is liable to mistake an investigation of his or her own mind for an investigation of all minds. This mistake is arguably encouraged by our monolithic talk of ‘The Mind’, as in the ‘The Mind-Body Problem’ or ‘The Mind-Brain Identity Theory’. In contrast, psychologists have long studied individual differences in our mental capacities, particularly in the areas of personality and intelligence, but increasingly with respect to basic perceptual and cognitive functions (Kanai and Rees 2011). Such differences merit philosophical attention, too. The philosophers of the ‘new wave’ represented in this collection should be philosophers of minds.KeywordsMental RotationPerceptual ExperienceMental ImageryConscious ExperienceVisual ImageryThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.