Past and Present Uses of Concepts as Tools for Investigating Mental Phenomena: Mental Imagery and Hallucinations

Abstract

The scientific concepts of mental imagery and hallucinations are each used independently of the other in experiments; uses that simultaneously evoke and obscure their historical connections. To highlight one of these connections, I will begin by sketching episodes from the largely separate developmental trajectories of each concept. Considering these historical sketches side-by-side, I will argue that the independent uses of these concepts each inherited a shared set of interdependent associations. In doing so, I seek to illustrate the value of examining historical connections between mental imagery and hallucinations for studying the current uses of these two concepts in neuroimaging experiments.