Dreams and Western Philosophy

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, although Western philosophy emphasized the irrationality of dreams and the dreaming state, Socrates and Aristotle investigated the thought that the dream was a possible indicator of a person's character. The author points out that this investigative of dreams came to an abrupt halt with Descartes, and not until Jean-Paul Sartre's "The Psychology of Imagination" did dreams became an extended topic for philosophical inquiry. The paper relates that an existential psychoanalytic approach to dreams can be seen in Ludwig Binswanger's essay, "Dream and Existence" (1930), Michel Foucault's "Dream, Imagination, and Existence" (1954), and in Federico Fellini's dream sequence and interpretation in his film, "8 ".

From the Paper:

"These early thoughts on dreams have a certain charm in their quaintness and naivete, and they were tentative attempts at trying to connect the dream state with the awake state. But if the dream had any notion of entering into center stage at any time beyond this period of philosophical antiquity, Descartes rudely gave the dream the hook and pulled it away from the wings and out the exit door. Never mind how the dream state connects with the awake state and how we can come to understand our daily lives. When Descartes contrasted the waking life with the dream state, he talked about the dream as a negative example to advance his theory of rational evidence, the role of sense perception, and the sensory resources available in the waking life."

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