The Rational Imagination: How People Create Alternatives to Reality

269 Pages·2005·0.91 MB·English

by  Ruth M. J. Byrne

Professor Ruth M. J. Byrne is Head of the Psychology cognitive science/psychology T The Rational Imagination
Department at Trinity College, Dublin University, Ireland. h How People Create Alternatives to Reality
“In this lucid and beautifully written book Byrne builds a sturdy bridge between the the- e Ruth M. J. Byrne
A Bradford Book ories of counterfactual thought and inferential reasoning. The integrated treatment that
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she proposes is a major contribution to both fields.” The human imagination remains one of the last unchart-
—Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (2002) a ed terrains of the mind. This accessible and original
t
i The Rational Imagination monograph explores a central aspect of the imagination,
o
“‘Knowing what I now know I would still have authorized the President to go to war.’—John the creation of counterfactual alternatives to reality, and
n
Kerry. If you want to understand why such conditionals matter, then you should read this claims that imaginative thoughts are guided by the same
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book. It brings together an account of rationality and creativity to present a unique and principles that underlie rational thoughts. Research has
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powerful theory of how we think about alternatives to reality.” shown that rational thought is more imaginative than
I
—Philip N. Johnson-Laird, Stuart Professor of Psychology, Princeton University m cognitive scientists had supposed; in The Rational
Imagination, Ruth Byrne argues that imaginative
a
“This is a wonderful and brilliant book. Byrne draws connections to many aspects of cog- thought is more rational than scientists have imagined.
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nition, but also to social psychology, differential psychology, evolutionary psychology, and People often create alternatives to reality and imag-
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clinical psychology. The book shows great breadth of imagination at the same time that n ine how events might have turned out “if only” some-
it shows rigorous attention to the details of experimental designs. This is a terrific book— a thing had been different. Byrne explores the “fault lines”
I really enjoyed reading it.” t of reality, the aspects of reality that are more readily
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—Robert J. Sternberg, IBM Professor of Psychology and Education, and Director of the o changed in imaginative thoughts. She finds that our ten-
PACE Center, Yale University n dencies to imagine alternatives to actions, controllable
events, socially unacceptable actions, causal and

enabling relations, and events that come last in a tem-

poral sequence provide clues to the cognitive process-

es upon which the counterfactual imagination depends.

The explanation of these processes, Byrne argues, rests

B on the idea that imaginative thought and rational
y thought have much in common.
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e
How People Create Alternatives to Reality
Cover art: Jack B. Yeats, The Singing Horseman,National Gallery of Ireland © 2005 Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London.
The MIT Press
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
Ruth M. J. Byrne
http://mitpress.mit.edu ,!7IA2G2-acfied!:t;K;k;K;k
0-262-02584-1
The Rational Imagination

The Rational Imagination
HowPeopleCreateAlternativestoReality
RuthM.J.Byrne
ABradfordBook
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London,England
(2005MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
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Byrne,RuthM.J.
Therationalimagination:howpeoplecreatealternativestoreality/RuthM.J.
Byrne.
p. cm.
‘‘ABradfordbook.’’
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-262-02584-1(alk.paper)
1.Imagination(Philosophy). 2.Reasoning. I.Title.
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ForMarkKeaneandAliciaByrneKeanewithallmylove

Contents
Preface xi
1 TheCounterfactualImagination 1
Imagination 2
CounterfactualImagination 3
WhatPeopleImagine 5
ImaginativeThoughtsandEmotions 8
WhatPeopleDoNotImagine 9
Summary 14
2 ImaginationandRationalThought 15
RationalThought 16
TheInterpretationof‘‘If’’ 19
ConditionalsandPossibilities 20
ConditionalInferences 22
InferencesandPossibilities 25
RationalityandConditionalInferences 28
RationalThoughtandImaginativeThought 30
CounterfactualConditionals 30
Dual-PossibilityIdeas 34
TheMutabilityofDual-PossibilityConcepts 36
TheRationalityoftheCounterfactualImagination 38
Summary 40
3 ImaginingHowActionsMightHaveBeenDifferent 43
‘‘IfOnly...’’AlternativestoActions 43
viii Contents
CluesfromReasoning:CounterfactualConditionals 48
CounterfactualConditionalsandDualPossibilities 48
TheRationalImagination:WhyPeopleImagineAlternativestoActions 52
ActionsandDualPossibilities 53
FailurestoAct 54
DualPossibilitiesforInactions 57
TheInactionEffect 62
Summary 66
4 ThinkingaboutWhatShouldHaveHappened 69
PeopleSay‘‘IfOnly...’’aboutWhatShouldNotHaveHappened 69
ControllableEventsandAcceptableEvents 70
CluesfromReasoning:InferencesaboutObligations 74
ForbiddenPossibilities 74
ForbiddenPossibilitiesandInferences 76
BiconditionalObligations:TwoForbiddenPossibilities 81
CounterfactualObligations 83
TheRationalImagination:WhyPeopleFocusonForbiddenFruit 87
ImaginedAlternativestoForbiddenPossibilities 87
ImaginedAlternativesandObligations 88
ObligationsandDomain-SpecificPossibilities 92
PermissionSchemasandSocial-ContractModules 92
ForbiddenPossibilities,Permissions,andSocialContracts 95
Summary 97
5 CausalRelationsandCounterfactuals 99
TheFocusofCounterfactualandCausalThoughts 100
TheCausalChickenandtheCounterfactualEgg 102
CluesfromReasoning:StrongCausalandEnablingRelations 106
CounterfactualThoughtsandEnablingRelations 107
ThePossibilitiesforEnablingRelations 108
DifferentInterpretationsLeadtoDifferentInferences 111
HowDoPeopleDistinguishCausalandEnablingRelations? 114
EnablingRelationsandPrevention 117
Contents ix
TheRationalImagination:WhyCounterfactualandCausalThoughtsDiffer
118
PeopleGenerateMoreCausalThanCounterfactualThoughts 119
WhatMakesPeopleThinkaboutaCauseorImagineanAlternative? 123
Summary 126
6 ‘‘EvenIf...’’ 129
PeopleImagineSemifactualAlternatives 130
SemifactualConditionalsandPossibilities 130
SemifactualAlternativesDenyaCausalLink 132
SemifactualAlternativesandWeakCausalRelations 135
CluesfromReasoning:‘‘EvenIf...’’ConditionalsandInferences 137
SemifactualConditionalsandInferences 138
ConditionalsasPrimes 143
TheRationalImagination:ImaginedSemifactualsandCausality 145
SemifactualAlternativesandCausality 145
TheHiddenPossibility 149
CounterfactualsAreNotBiconditionals 150
‘‘EvenIf...’’ConditionalsandtheThirdPossibility 152
Summary 155
7 The‘‘LastChance’’ 157
PeopleFocusonRecentEvents 157
CluesfromReasoning:TheCaseof‘‘OnlyIf’’Conditionals 158
‘‘OnlyIf’’ConditionalsandInferences 159
PossibilitiesPreserveTemporalOrder 162
TheRationalImagination:WhyPeopleChangeRecentEvents 167
AProgramtoSimulateTemporalAnchoring 169
AnchoredPossibilitiesandDualPossibilities 171
TheSpaceofCounterfactualPossibilities 175
Summary 179
8 IndividualsandCreativeThoughts 181
IndividualDifferencesinImaginativeThoughts 182
FactsandOtherPossibilities 183
MultiplePossibilities 185
HeuristicsandStrategies 189