The amplification of reason, or the recuperation of imagination: Peter Weir's Dead Poets Society

Abstract

The question addressed here concerns the relation between reason and imagination: is the prejudice against imagination on the part of western philosophers, at least until Kant, justifiable? Or should we, following Kant in (the first edition of) his first Critique, regard imagination as being integral to reason? Moreover, was Shakespeare right, in A midsummer night's dream, about imagination preparing one for mature social and moral action? These issues are addressed here by way of an exploration of their cinematic dramatization in Weir's film, Dead Poets Society.