David Hume on imagination and impossibility: an analysis of literary examples

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5433/el.2011v8.e25753

Keywords:

Literature, Imagination, Impossibility, David Hume

Abstract

The present article undertakes (with the help of literary examples) an examination of Scottish philosopher David Hume’s opinion concerning the relation between impossibility and imagination; according to Hume, that which is absolutely inconceivable must be also absolutely impossible. Some poetic constructions conjoining contradictory or opposing ideas were analyzed, with the intent to verify to what extent they would yield visual and/or linguistic mental representations. A typology of the literary strategies for conjoining contradictory or opposing ideas was sketched as support for our analysis.

Author Biography

Fabiano Seixas Fernandes, Universidade Federal do Ceará - UFC

PhD in Literature from the Federal Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina - UFSC

References

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Published

2011-12-22

How to Cite

Fernandes, F. S. (2011). David Hume on imagination and impossibility: an analysis of literary examples. Estação Literária, 8(2Supl.), 166–180. https://doi.org/10.5433/el.2011v8.e25753

Issue

Section

Artigos da Seção Livre