Richard of St. Victor's theory of imagination / / Ritva Palmén.

• Superior document: Investigating Medieval Philosophy, Volume 8
• VerfasserIn: Palmén, Ritva,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, Netherlands : : Brill,, 2014.; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Investigating medieval philosophy ; Volume 8.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (307 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Richard of St.Victor (d.1173) developed original ideas about the faculty of imagination in a twelfth-century Parisian context. Related to the historical study of philosophical psychology, Richard of St. Victor’s Theory of Imagination acknowledges that the faculty of imagination, being a necessary precondition for human reasoning and a link between soul and body, plays an important role in Richard’s understanding of the human soul. Richard also deals with the interpretation of biblical language, metaphors, rhetoric, and the possibility of creative imagination. Considering all these aspects of the imagination in Richard’s texts improves our understanding of his theological epistemology and sheds new light on the theory of the imagination in the history of medieval philosophy in general.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Imagination in Classical and Medieval Thought -- The Fundamentals of Richard’s Anthropology -- The Role of Imagination as the Soul Prepares for Contemplation -- Imagination in the First Two Kinds of Contemplation -- The Third Kind of Contemplation -- Imagination at the Uppermost Stages of Contemplation -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.