"We are fantasising imaginative animals": Reading Chapter XI Imagination

Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals’s Chapter XI on imagination is central to the book. It is physically located (almost) in the middle and considers a central faculty, or central faculties, in Murdoch’s philosophy: imagination and fantasy. The chapter begins with in-depth, original discussions of Immanuel Kant and Plato’s understanding of imagination. These discussions are not easy to follow. One of my aims here is to reconstruct Murdoch’s argument through close text reading, explaining some of the terminology and adding missing elements. Another aim is to relate the remaining sections of this chapter to the earlier discussion of Kant and Plato. However, I begin by briefly exploring my own reading experience of Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals and to suggest some solutions to the the difficulties experienced when reading the work.