Epistemic function of imagination in obtaining philosophical concepts from the perspective of Allameh Tabatabai and David Hume

Abstract

This article aims to explain the role and epistemological position of imagination in the scope of a huge part of information and mental content that is philosophical concepts and by emphasizing the opinions of Allameh Tabataba'i and David Hume, it has been subjected to a comparative evaluation. In this research ,after mentioning a brief introduction of the history of philosophy referring to the basic principles of both philosophers and presenting some examples of these concepts describing the general pattern of the process of obtaining philosophical concepts and during this description and paying attention to the basic principles arising from the foundations and philosophical teachings of both philosophers, we were finally able to get a clear picture of the interventions and mediation of the imagination in achieving these elusive concepts. The findings of this article show that mediation of imagination in the process of obtaining philosophical concepts is inevitable in the philosophical system of booth philosophers.With the difference that the inevitability of the role of the imagination in the process of obtaining philosophical concepts in Hume's philosophical system is mainly in line with the discussion of the principle of association of ideas, unification and mental order and arrangement rather than their knowledge . However, in Allameh's philosophical system, the inevitability of the role of imagination in the process of obtaining philosophical concepts is a necessary but insufficient thing, which just in process of immediate connection with facts is has cognitive function and this makes validity and cognitivity of mentioned concepts.