Meta-Imagination With Christian Scholz
In this fascinating presentation on ‘Meta-Imagination And The Language Game of Visualising,‘ Christian Scholz presents a new theoretical concept called meta-imagination. Meta-imagination is the ability to “act” as if one is visualising, which people with aphantasia can do.
Watch this extended interview with Chris answering the community’s questions in this live Q&A session hosted by Aphantasia Network Founder Tom Ebeyer.
List Of Questions
- If aphantasics start at the abstract concept or “type” level, and hyperphantasics have more of a tendency to start at a “token” level, how do these different modes of thinking affect how we process the world and our thoughts?
- Aphantasics are playing the game in a different way. This is something we see in some of the experiments and research around aphantasia. The outcome is the same, but when you dig into how aphantasics are solving the problem the process is different. Where do you see this research going next? What’s next for you?
- Can you elaborate on this idea of the “Visualiser’s Fallacy“?
- Have you investigated at all how memory plays into this? One of the things we hear a lot from aphantasics is that there may be a deficiency in autobiographical memory. How might that play into this idea of ‘meta-imagination’?
About the Researcher
Christian Scholz is currently working as a PhD student at the Institute for Philosophy II at the Ruhr-University of Bochum. Previously, he obtained master’s degrees in Clinical Psychology and Logic from the University of Groningen and the University of Amsterdam. His work focuses on the philosophy of mind, where he is especially interested in mental imagery and the phenomenon of aphantasia. He strongly believes that a neuroscientific approach to mental phenomena should be combined with philosophical conceptual analysis and that theoretical conceptualizations, in turn, greatly benefit from an empathetic approach toward the subject.
Scholz, C. (2023). Imaginability as Representability: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Aphantasia. MSc in Logic – Universiteit van Amsterdam.