The Earth's bubbles and slaughter's pencil : "Macbeth" and the philosophy of imagination

Abstract

This is — I must warn the reader — in many ways a failed text. If little else, it is a testimony to the ambition and immodesty of a youthful (i.e. inexperienced) researcher; and — as we know from Shakespeare’s equestrian metaphor — ambition usually “o’erleaps itself.” I have decided to reprint it for a number of reasons. First, a great deal of sound research had gone into producing it; the reader may benefit from the informative element of the text. Second, some readers may find interesting, indeed intriguing — as I did as a Ph.D. student — the links, connections, and affinities between a Shakespeare play and a philosophical treatise. The basic idea was — as far as I am able to recall it — to engage drama and philosophy in a dialogue, perhaps a quarrel. Macbeth is a fascinating play; also — chiefly? — due to its preoccupation with fantasy and its concern with fantasy’s role in human life. Fantasy has been a fascinating if troublesome subject for philosophical reflection; it forces a philosopher to open herself onto the unknown and the unchartered. The issue that I still regard as worth reopening is this type of utility of fantasy; that is, the way it haunts the understanding. Lastly, upon rereading this text I discovered to my surprise that the theme of fear, which I wander into here with much relish, anticipated my future interest in the literature of terror.