Anna Ichino (University of Nottingham)

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June 6 MON — 10.30-12.30

Sala "Enzo Paci" — Direzione del Dipartimento (Via Festa del Perdono 7, Milano)

The Powers of Imagination 

Abstract: Believing that you have won the lottery is clearly different from merely imagining that you have won the lottery. But what precisely does the difference amount to? This is less clear. According to the standard view in the contemporary debate, imaginings and beliefs differ in two key functional respects: (1) with respect to the cognitive inputs in response to which they are formed (imaginings are not formed in response to real-world evidence as beliefs are), and (2) with respect to the behavioural outputs that they are able to produce (imaginings do not motivate us to act as beliefs do). I will argue that the standard view is mistaken: imaginings motivate us to act (and react) precisely as beliefs do; hence the only relevant difference between them is at the input level. I will show that this view does not have the absurd consequences that it is generally taken to have; and that, on the contrary, it has important implications for our understanding of how the mind works.