Abstract

Reflecting on our engagement with fiction has compelled some theorists to expand the domain of the mental. They have posited a novel conative state, so-called ‘i-desire’. The central thesis of this approach is that i-desire relates to imagination in the same way as desire relates to belief. We formulate principles that are plausible consequences of this thesis. We then put pressure on these principles by focusing on desire concepts such as hoping, and show that the imaginative analogues of these concepts – if there are any – do not satisfy the principles. We conclude by considering what our result suggests about the relationship between i-desire and propositional attitude psychology.