ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the insights derived from linking Ricoeur's notion of imagination to theories of learning and cognition can lead to a clearer understanding of the role of imagination in disciplinary work and the creation of knowledge. Two of Vygotsky's concepts are crucial in understanding the relationship between learning and imagination. The first is the notion of mediation by tools, or signs, particularly language, in the emergence of the higher mental processes of human thinking. Developing the idea of the role of speech in complex thinking, Vygotsky argues that speech introduces a 'timefield', allowing people to direct their attention in a dynamic way and not be restricted simply to the synchronous visual field. Perception, Wartofsky contended, is a specific mode of outward activity continuous with other forms of activity in the world. Ricoeur's proposition was that language offers a new way of understanding the phenomenon of imagination.
