On 5 November philosopher Onno Zijlstra, author of Verbeelding. Over waarneming en kunst, and Wendy Janssen (philosophy teacher at ArtEZ University of the Arts, Zwolle) had a conversation about the relationship between imagination, perception, and art. This interview could be attended live and you can now also watch it digitally.

Onno Zijlstra’s book Verbeelding. Over waarneming en kunst formed the guiding principle for the conversation. An important role in this book is reserved for the eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant and his thinking about imagination. Kant gives imagination a central place in his philosophy: no reality without imagination. In addition to Kant’s ideas, the ideas of other philosophers such as Plato, David Hume and Ludwig Wittgenstein are also discussed. Naturally, a book about the relationship between imagination, perception and art cannot lack inspiring works of art that stimulate the imagination. In addition to eleven intermezzos that highlight specific artists and/or art forms, the book also contains seven visual essays that express in images what is described by Onno Zijlstra.