Preconditions for the Imaginative Turn in Neo-Pragmatic Ethics
The article is devoted to the analysis of ethical theories that were formulated in a neo-pragmatic discourse, in particular to the study of preconditions for an imaginative transition. Since forming a new image of ethics is done by supporters of pragmatism by criticizing the rationalistic tradition, the categories that have traditionally been associated with the sphere of irrational come first, related to sensuality and aesthetics. Therefore, the effectiveness of solving moral issues in pragmatic ethics directly depends on the extent to which the resources of imagination are actively used. The author of the article offers to use the new term “imaginative transition” to fix the specifics of those ethical theories. There is a historical and comparative review in order to trace the transformation of the idea of the imagination. The author indicates the conceptual foundations of universalist ethical theory, where imagination belonged to the sphere of sensuality and had no privileged status. In formulating ethical concepts, the rationalistic tradition, which dates back to early Greek philosophy, was primarily based on gnoseology, and the main virtue was wisdom that was associated with an enlightened mind. Followers of Plato’s fundamentalism and Descartes’ objectivism treated the imagination as a derivative of blind feelings. The article has shown that the main actor in the transition from the rationalistic tradition to the romantic one, in which imagination will be interpreted as the highest form of spirit activity, was Immanuel Kant. Based on the hermeneutic analysis of the philosopher’s texts, it has been discovered that the ability to imagine is crucial to the thinking process for Kant, and knowledge is interpreted as a synthesis of sensuality and reasoning in the activities of the imagination. The author shows that Kant’s aesthetics is the result of the problem of coordinating the pure and practical mind. The author comes to the conclusion, that the adherents of pragmatism, considering the ability of imagination as having moral force, develop an idea which was first clearly formulated by Kant.