Steven French (University of Leeds)
Are the nature and role of imagination in science the same as that in art? Here I explore this question in the context of scientific discovery. On the one hand, contrary to recent accounts of imagination in fiction, the relevant attitude in science seems closer to that of belief. On the other, the constraints exemplified in the former play a similar role to heuristic factors evidenced in the latter. I shall present a framework that offers the possibility of a unitary approach to imagination in both cases, which illustrates what they have in common whilst acknowledging where they diverge.
