Publication details
Smysl snu
| Title in English | The Meaning of Dream |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Requested lectures |
| Citation | |
| Description | The text examines whether dreams possess epistemic meaning. It begins from the idea that we attribute value to dreams through parallels with established modes of knowing—seeing, remembering, imagining, and insight—and that shifts in these analogies alter our sense of what makes dreams meaningful. The analysis argues that dreams provide no systematic epistemic support: the relation between dream content and facts is contingent, and the cognitive value of dreams always parasitically depends on other, waking sources of knowledge. Dreams thus have only minimal epistemic significance, functioning chiefly as symptoms of the dreamer’s mental state. The final section turns to the ethics of dream-telling: like homeopathy, reflection on dreams may have a mild therapeutic effect, yet it becomes a vice when it fosters epistemic narcissism or displaces more reliable means of inquiry. Ultimately, the dream is presented as a philosophical instrument for simulating the loss of control—a first-person experience approximating life without free will. Dreams lack epistemic meaning, and precisely in that lies their epistemic meaning. |
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