Topics Mind

Question Can a person imagine doing something while doing the thing imagined? For example, can I imagine touching a key on my keyboard while touching it?

Accepted:
November 1, 2005

Comments

I think you can. You clearly could dream you were walking naked through your local supermarket while you are walking naked through your local supermarket, and I think the same could be said for imagining, though you would have to be an exceptionally absent-minded philosopher for this actually to happen. To take a less extreme example, you might imagine that you were traveling through Luxembourg at a time when, although you didn't realise it (because it was dark and Luxembourg is such a small country that it is easy to miss), you actually were driving through Luxembourg.

I think it is easy to imagine things that you are presently doing that you don't realize that you are presently doing, as in Peter's Luxembourg example, above. More interesting is whether you can imagine things that you do realize that you are presently doing. Peter's example of the naked supermarket shopper, also above, is underdescribed in this way -- does the absentminded philosopher know he's naked in the supermarket when he's imagining it?

If you are inclined to think that you can't imagine something that you know you are presently doing, then to make sense of the naked supermarket shopper case you might have to think of it this way: Professor McAbsentminded heads out of his house, unaware that he is naked, and unaware that he ends up in the grocery store. While he is then -- unbeknownest to himself -- standing naked in the grocery store, he imagines himself standing naked in the grocery store.

I'm not inclined to put this restriction on imagining, however. I think we can imagine doing something that we are presently doing, even if we are perfectly aware that we are doing it. If you disagree, it might be because you think the reality that we are seeing/experiencing "blocks" our ability to imagine that thing. But if you can imagine dancing with your favorite movie star while you are in fact typing at your computer, and the computer screen in front of you doesn't "block" your ability to imagine, then why should it block your ability to imagine when you more mundanely imagine typing at your computer?

One further reason one might think that you can't imagine something that you are presently doing is that you might associate imagining with things that are counter to fact. This assumption also seems to me to be unwarranted. For example, suppose you have lost your keys and you are trying to remember whether you left them on your desk at work. You might try to imagine your desk at work just as it actually is to help you remember whether your keys are on it.

One final comment. The best way to answer your question might be just to try it for yourself. Next time you are typing at your keyboard, try to imagine typing at your keyboard, and see whether you can do it.

Question Can a person imagine doing something while doing the thing imagined? For example, can I imagine touching a key on my keyboard while touching it? Accepted:November 1, 2005

Question Can a person imagine doing something while doing the thing imagined? For example, can I imagine touching a key on my keyboard while touching it?

Accepted:
November 1, 2005