The imagination, our capacity to entertain thoughts and ideas "in the mind's eye," is indispensable in science as elsewhere in human life. Indeed, common scientific practices such as modeling and idealization rely on the imagination to construct simplified, stylized scenarios essential for scientific understanding. Yet the philosophy of science has traditionally shied away from according an important role to the imagination, wary of psychologizing fundamental scientific concepts like explanation and justification. In recent years, however, advances in thinking about creativity and fiction, and their relation to theorizing and understanding, have prompted a move away from older philosophical perspectives and toward a greater acknowledgement of the place of the imagination in scientific practice. Meanwhile, psychologists have engaged in significant experimental work on the role of the imagination in causal thinking and probabilistic reasoning.
The Scientific Imagination delves into this burgeoning area of debate at the intersection of the philosophy and practice of science, bringing together the work of leading researchers in philosophy and psychology. Philosophers discuss such topics as modeling, idealization, metaphor and explanation, examining their role within science as well as how they affect questions in metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of language. Psychologists discuss how our imaginative capacities develop and how they work, their relationships with processes of reasoning, and how they compare to related capacities, such as categorization and counterfactual thinking. Together, these contributions combine to provide a comprehensive and exciting picture of the scientific imagination.
Industry Reviews
"The book contains thirteen chapters, written by philosophers and psychologists, each exploring the role of imagination in scientific inquiry. Many (though not all) of the chapters focus on scientific modelling and, in particular, on the idea that models can be com- pared to works of fiction, a view defended by Levy and Godfrey-Smith themselves, along with me, Roman Frigg and others...I should stress, however, that the book contains a great deal else that is of
interest too." -- Adam Toon, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
"All of the chapters present thought-provoking new ideas" -- Michael T Stuart, Journal for General Philosophy of Science
"This collection of thirteen new essays reflects growing agreement that imagination plays a key role in science, not just in thinking up hypotheses, but in testing them.... The sixteen authors include many of those who have already made significant contributions to meeting the challenge. The volume furthers the debate and will encourage others to get involved. It is greatly to be welcomed... anyone interested in the scientific imagination will have a lot to
learn from this volume." -- Timothy Williamson, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
