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| Imaginative Minds: An Interdisciplinary Symposium30 April-1 May 2004The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AHImagination and testimony in cognitive development: the cautious disciple?Professor Paul Harris, FBA,1 and Dr Melissa Koenig Children rapidly come to be competent at and enjoy engaging in conversation about events that they themselves have not witnessed - or could not witness. I shall argue that children must use their imagination in order to follow such conversations. I also argue that this capacity to make sense of other people's testimony - via the imagination - dramatically enlarges children's scope for knowing about the world. At the same time, it also leads them to believe in various metaphysical possibilities that they have no hope of checking for themselves.
1. Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education |
