Varieties of World Making: Personal & Public Functions of the Imagination

Friday, October 31, 2014 @ 2:00PM Sakamaki C-308

The EPOCH Project recently showcased some of its graduate student work. The colloquium, Varieties of World Making: Personal and Public Functions of the Imagination, organized graduate research on the topic of the imagination, the 2014 research focus of the EPOCH Project. The event consisted of four short presentations on different functions of the imagination, taking up the topics of: knowing by imagination, the phenomenology of boredom, understanding others through imagination, and imaginative projections of future politics. The presentation served a two-fold purpose. Firstly, under the guidance of EPOCH director Professor Arindam Chakrabarti, graduate research in the department had coalesced on the topic of imagination and the time was ripe for a public presentation of the work being done. In addition to philosophy faculty, students, and friends of the department, the presentation was well attended by graduate students and faculty in diverse fields such as history, psychology, and future studies. Secondly, the introduction of fresh ideas and new interpretive vocabulary served the purpose of the philosophy department colloquium series whereby our geographically isolated community in Hawai‛i does not remain isolated in terms of philosophical diversity and the introduction of novel challenges to our intellectual community. In the end, a productive discussion was instigated on a variety of approaches to the imagination with EPOCH’s presence in the department appropriately highlighted.