What is imagination?

In the mail last week I was excited to receive the hard copy of “The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination”. We have a chapter in there about the functions of the imagination, where we introduce a new concept: “Metaforesight”.

Metaforesight refers to our ability to evaluate the strengths and limitations of our own predictions and the operations of our other cognitive systems in the future. These insights can drive action in preparation for possible future failures, such as when we make contingency plans because we know our hoped-for forecasts are no guarantee.

I was pleased to sneak a quote from Loren Eiseley, my favourite author, into the start of the chapter. If you’re new to Eiseley, the book that this quote is drawn from is a great starting point. It’s called “The Immense Journey”. I couldn’t recommend it more highly. Here’s a paid amazon affiliate link to the page where you can buy Eiseley’s book.

How to buy the book or read the chapter

You can read a full pre-print version of our chapter free here.
If you’d like to buy the book, here’s a paid amazon affiliate link for the Amazon page.
You can also find the book on the Cambridge University Press page here.

Happy reading!