24.262 | Spring 2004 | Undergraduate

Feeling and Imagination in Art, Science, and Technology

Calendar

Required reading for everyone is Singer, Irving. Feeling and Imagination: The Vibrant Flux of Our Existence. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. ISBN: 0742512347. The topics and readings for each class session are as follows:

SES # TOPICS
1

Introduction and overview of course; discussion of topics including the nature of imagination, the eccentric genius, divine inspiration, bisociation, and the roles of dreaming and the unconscious in creativity.

Read: pp. ix-58

2

Review of previous session; discussion of consummation and love, intuition versus intelligence, and different types of creativity: logical, empirical, moral, practical, and others.

Read: pp. 59-94

3

Discussion of creativity, religion, and the nature of the universe; ideas and theories of Bergson, Plato, Nietzsche, Minsky, Boden, Freud, and Proust as they relate to creativity and imagination.

Read: pp. 95-141

4

Presentation and discussion of student research paper topics: the brain as a bodily instrument, how capitalism and economics relate to creativity, creativity in a cappella singing, human and computer creativity.

Read: pp. 142-207

Course Info

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As Taught In
Spring 2004