“A New Theory of ‘Imaginative Resistance’”

15 June 2016; 1600-18:00

Senate House – Room 243

Abstract

‘Imaginative resistance’ is a phenomenon supposedly encountered with respect to certain fictional sentences – one experiences difficulty, or resistance in imagining that they are true. I discuss some trends in explanations of this supposed phenomenon, before offering my own new explanation: namely, there is no such thing as imaginative resistance. There is only (in nearly every case standardly discussed under this heading) resistance to believing something that, the reader takes it, it is pragmatically implicated that she should believe.

 

Previous Presentations:

Fantasy and Cinema
Thursday, 20 November 2008
16:00-18:00 at Senate House, NG16