FILOSOFIA E IMAGINAÇÃO NO SONHO, DE KEPLER, E NOS DIÁLOGOS SOBRE A PLURALIDADE DOS MUNDOS, DE FONTENELLE

The present paper intends to analyze the uses of imagination in two xviith century astronomical narratives: Kepler’s Dream (1634), and Fontenelle’s Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (1686). The purpose is to show, on the one hand, how in both texts imagination is considered positively and within the framework of the critique of superstition - considering the differences in their cosmologies; and, on the other hand, the paper intends to present the singularity of each authors’ uses of imagination: Kepler’s claim for a new conception of scientific observation and Fontenelle’s historical approach to the sciences.