This paper develops an account of the nature of imagination as a discrete mental process underpinned by a specialised neural and computational architecture.The account integrates evidence from cognitive neuroscience and Food Service:Commercial Kitchen Equipment:Food Preparation Equipment:Commercial Mixers developmental psychology with philosophical arguments about the nature of imagination.We situate the account against other philosophical accounts and apply it to the understanding of some puzzling phenomena: delusion, pretence and PCB self-deception.We argue that many of the puzzling features of these phenomena arise because they are analysed with a doxastic framework.
When the role of imagination in these cases is properly understood these puzzles become more tractable.