Koen Vermeir

History of the Powers of Imagination

Vermeir will explore the history of the early modern imagination, wonders, and sympathy. His interdisciplinary approach looks at the cultural history of philosophy, science, medicine, religion, psychology, and aesthetics. He will show how the imagination changed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from a decried and magical faculty into an extolled power responsible for sympathy, social cohesion, and aesthetic creativity. He will also write a cultural history of a startling case of divination at the end of the seventeenth century.