Melchior Palágyi: Der Gegensatz von Geist und Leben. Schriften zur schöpferischen Verbindung von Erkenntnistheorie und Vitalismus. Edited by Heiko Heublein. München: Albunea Verlag, 2018. 232 pp.

Abstract

Like no other, the Hungarian psychologist and philosopher Melchior Palágyi recognized the power of imagination not only as a prerequisite for the ability to imagine and think, but also as a fundamental condition for movement and perception. With the original theory of the “virtual imagination”, Palágyi’s ideas inspired Philosophical Anthropology and medicine after his death. Today, however, he and his theory seem to have been forgotten. The following review is therefore dedicated to the work “Leben und Geist” (Life and Spirit), edited by Heiko Heublein and published in 2018, which is a representative cross-section of Palágyi’s work. The review focuses on his reflections on the theory of perception, which are the core not only of the anthology, but of his oeuvre. The most important cornerstones of Palágyi’s theory of perception are the “theory of intermittent perception” and the “virtual imagination”.