Worlds of the possible: Abstraction, imagination, consciousness

IF 0.5 3区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
K. Oatley
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引用次数: 9

Abstract

The ability to think in abstractions depends on the imagination. An important evolutionary change was the installation of a suite of six imaginative activities that emerge at first in childhood, which include empathy, symbolic play, and theory-of-mind. These abilities can be built upon in adulthood to enable the production of oral and written stories. As a technology, writing has three aspects: material, skill based, and societal. It is in fiction that expertise in writing is most strikingly attained; imagination is put to use to create simulations of the social world that can usefully be offered to others. Fiction is best conceived as an externalization of consciousness, which not only enables us to understand others but also to transform ourselves so that we can reach beyond the immediate.
可能的世界:抽象,想象,意识
抽象思维的能力取决于想象力。一个重要的进化变化是一套六种想象力活动的安装,这些活动最初出现在童年时期,包括移情,符号游戏和心理理论。这些能力可以在成年后继续培养,使他们能够创作口头和书面故事。作为一种技术,写作有三个方面:材料、技能和社会。在小说中,人们最容易获得写作技巧;想象力被用来创造对社会世界的模拟,这些模拟可以提供给其他人。小说最好被理解为意识的外化,它不仅能让我们理解他人,还能改变我们自己,使我们能够超越眼前。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.80
自引率
0.00%
发文量
1
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