Imagining future ecologies: Kantian imagination across generations

Abstract

Imagination is a faculty which enables human beings to put themselves in the place of another and bear in mind differing points of view. In this article, I examine the ways in which imagination can be conceived of in an expanded dimension, not just in space but also in time, in the sense of a future “visit to the other”. To this end, I will first examine various imaginative exercises: in terms of kindness as formulated by Adam Smith and of commitment according to Amartya Sen, but also in the appropriation that Hannah Arendt performs of the faculty of judgement in her political lecture on Kantian philosophy. This idea of the imagination is promising for creating a responsibility based on what is public and on deliberation orientated towards the construction of a common world, assuming responsibility for the needs of future generations. But imagination alone is not enough; individual education is also needed along with political and economic structures that foster active, critical, and responsible citizenship.