Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Philosophy

Advisor

Jesse Prinz

Committee Members

Jay Garfield

Hagop Sarkissian

Noel Carroll

Subject Categories

Buddhist Studies | Comparative Philosophy | Ethics and Political Philosophy | Feminist Philosophy | History of Philosophy | Metaphysics | Philosophy | Philosophy of Mind

Keywords

Buddhism, psychology, feminism, sexual fantasy, empathy, embodiment

Abstract

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary investigation of the imagination and the self that engages with cognitive science, philosophy of mind, Buddhism, ethical theories, and a variety of perspectives from Asian and Western philosophy. I address the following questions in three interrelated chapters. First, what does it mean for the self to appear in imagination? In Chapter 1, against certain narrow understandings of the self in philosophy of language, I build a multidimensional model of the self in imaginative experiences to capture the rich phenomenology, drawing on empirical findings on memory and imagination. Second, can the self be removed from imagination? To what extent can imagination be self-less? This investigation is inspired by Buddhist metaphysics of "no-self." In Chapter 2, through a close reading of Buddhist texts on imaginative self-transformation, I argue that there is no straightforward translation from metaphysics to psychology when it comes to self-dissolution: some dimensions of self are necessarily present in imaginative experiences. Finally, should the self be morally evaluated for its imaginative activities? Can there be a genuine inconsistency between one's fantasy and real-life attitudes? I make an intervention in the ethics of imagination in Chapter 3. I argue that while there is nothing morally wrong with engaging in pure, private fantasies that involve counter-normative elements, the fantasizer can nevertheless have good reasons to feel psychological unease. One kind of unease can be understood as rooted in an inconsistency between the selves inside and outside fantasy, and is most accurately understood as a feeling of ambivalence, rather than shame.

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