ABSTRACT
The point of trying to sketch even a very short history of imagination is due to the way such a complex concept accumulates its meaning. What we mean by the term today is a compound of residues of various meanings people have had of it in the past. Many of our most complex concepts are accumulations of meanings whose constituents often do not always entirely cohere. We have a sense of vagueness about such concepts. In the case of imagination, I think this sense of vagueness is due in part to its complexity but also in part to its containing a number of elements that do not sit comfortably together. I think we can clarify its present complex meaning by unfolding some of the ideas that have folded into it over the centuries.
