An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.
Concerning Imagination.
Chapter XVII.—Concerning Imagination.
Imagination is a faculty of the unreasoning part of the soul. It is through the organs of sense that it is brought into action, and it is spoken of as sensation. And further, what is imagined and perceived is that which comes within the scope of the faculty of imagination and sensation. For example, the sense of sight is the visual faculty itself, but the object of sight is that which comes within the scope of the sense of sight, such as a stone or any other such object. Further, an imagination is an affection of the unreasoning part of the soul which is occasioned by some object acting upon the sensation. But an appearance is an empty affection of the unreasoning part of the soul, not occasioned by any object acting upon the sensation. Moreover the organ of imagination is the anterior ventricle of the brain.
Edition and rights
NPNF2-09. Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus. Historical English edition; series volume first published 1899.
S. D. F. Salmond, translator of John of Damascus
Ancient work and historical English translation: public domain in the United States (published before 1931). Copyright rules vary by country. This is a historical source transcription, not an official Church edition. Modern website material is not reproduced.
Historical footnotes and publisher introductions are omitted. Author-written openings are retained. Paragraph whitespace is normalized. Transcriptions can contain errors; this is not a critical edition. Attribution follows the historical edition, not universal scholarly agreement.
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Source section: iii.iv.ii.xvii · Text SHA-256: 831d667319f0f5dd28b750aaef6e64fa4925e142435fd9acdcf4b9963ff39805