Abstract

MASSIMI, Marina. Images and imagination in the philosophical traditions transmitted in colonial Brazil. Arq. bras. psicol. [online]. 2011, vol.63, n.3, pp.117-129. ISSN 1809-5267.

The article discusses the function and operation of psychic dynamism in the reception of the image, according to some important philosophical theories available in the cultural universe of the classic period of the Middle Ages and Modern Age in the West, including in Brazil: the theories of Aristotle, Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. It highlights the importance of these foundations for discussions concerning the concepts of image and imagination taken as a psychic process in modernity and also for their applications in theology and sacred rhetoric. It shows that in these theories the functioning of the psychic phenomenon of the imagination is viewed in an integrated manner with other processes; senses, memory and understanding, affections and the will, which is an essential element in the path of knowledge and that is always referred to the image in its multiple dimensions suggested by the specific cultural universe.

Keywords : Imagination; Image; Rhetoric; Theology.

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