Inference and Imagination

Abstract

Our ability to imagine alternatives to reality is central to everyday cognition. Our competence in reasoning depends not only on our capacity to envisage the relevant facts, but also on our proficiency in simulating alternatives to them. I discuss how our skill in making deductive inferences depends on imagining possibilities. To illustrate, I consider evidence on the suppression of inferences, the cognitive processes based on mental models that explain how we make inferences, and corroboration from studies of counterfactual reasoning. I also discuss how our ability to create alternatives to reality depends on identifying mutable aspects of mental simulations. To illustrate, I consider evidence on imagining alternatives to aspects of situations within our control, the cognitive processes based on simulation availability that explain how we create alternatives to reality, and corroboration from studies of moral decision‐making. I conclude with an exploration of the imagination as the engine of the mind.