Phronesis and Phantasia : Teaching with Wisdom and Imagination

Critics of Aristotelian accounts of practical reasoning, in teaching and in other contexts, criticise phronesis for its rigidity and lack of imagination. This paper argues that phantasia , or imagination, helps us to develop a richer account of Aristotle’s phronesis . Two senses of phantasia , as producing images and as an interpretive faculty, are proposed here to be importantly involved in phronesis . By producing images that help in the selection of an end goal, and by having an interpretive faculty that helps to compare competing possibilities, phantasia plays a crucial role in the practical reasoning process of phronesis .