Title of Dissertation:

Towards a New Theory of Knowing by Imagining

Tuesday, August 4th, 2025
2:30pm HAST

In Person: Sakamaki Hall, Room D-302

Zoom Link: https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/97017431776?pwd=RLPJsaOckwFQfzPOg7aQBfUr6aF122.1
Meeting ID: 970 1743 177
Passcode: 101345

This dissertation explores the relationship between knowledge, imagination, and action in the light of some classical Indian, modern European, and more recent Euro-American sources on these subjects. The narrow thesis is that imagination is a source of knowledge—on a par with perceptual experience and reason—because it is our sole means of finding out, for the first time, that a novel action is possible for a certain agent in that agent’s particular situation and concrete circumstances. To make the point clear, this work aims to develop a nuanced understanding of each key concept—knowledge, imagination, and action—drawing upon the three traditions mentioned at the outset.

PhD COMMITTEE:
Arindam Chakrabarti, Chair
Vrinda Dalmiya
Masato Ishida
Franklin Perkins
Jesse Knutson, University Representative

Ian Nicolay is a PhD candidate in Philosophy Department at UH Mānoa and an adjunct lecturer in Sanskrit language and literature for the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at SUNY Stony Brook.