Imaginative Liberty

Imaginative liberty is freedom of imagination - with imagination understood as the capacity to conceive, picture, and inhabit worldviews (ethical, political, artistic, religious, philosophical). Imaginative liberty is developed by acquaintance with the ideas and experiences of historical periods and geographical regions other than one's own; by anything, in fact, that enriches one's storehouse of worldviews, and of the feelings, concepts, etc. that go to make up such worldviews. It is fostered by Coleridge's 'suspension of disbelief', by Keats' 'negative capability', and by Schleiermacher's and Dilthey's hermeneutics. It is fostered by talking to the most varied and interesting people one can find. It is freedom from one-sidedness in the life of the mind - though it is compatible with political or religious commitment. It is a natural extension of the principle of 'freedom of religion' - it is the capacity to choose between broad ethical or religious commitments with as much autonomy as is possible in our post-enlightenment age. It is a species of 'positive liberty', but it is compatible with 'negative liberty'. It is a possible foundation for a romantic liberalism.