Consciousness and the imagination of the other

What is traditionally-and excessively approximately-called the imagination is a necessary component of the life of consciousness, which plays a determ ining role in the constitution of knowledge and of comprehension of the oth er. Rejected firstly by modern philosophy and then by psychology, the conce pt today has recovered the theoretical value of cognitive mediator required by mutual comprehension, and hence a major role in the knowledge of a self (affective, narrative), and of that of others, in intercultural dialogue, a nd also, for example, in the models of planning of individual action. the a nalysis of the usage of prejudice and of stereotypes reveals particularly c learly how imagination makes possible the "fine risk" of interpretation in the process of identification of the "similar."