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The Act of Imagination

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The Problem of Life
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Abstract

Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the seminal philosophers of the twentieth century. Among the many topics which he analysed was the topic of perception. This is, of course, one of the most fundamental in the whole field of philosophy. In order to enter the subject he made use of analogies drawn from visual perception. He was concerned to bring out the fact that we customarily use the verb ‘to see’ in two different senses (1). We are not only aware of the object in the visual field but we also attempt to interpret the sensation so that it fits into our ‘pattern of expectations’. It is this second sense of ‘see’ which is of interest in the present context.

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Notes

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© 1976 C.U.M. Smith

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Smith, C.U.M. (1976). The Act of Imagination. In: The Problem of Life. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02461-2_1

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