| Preface | xi |
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| 1 | The Counterfactual Imagination | 1 |
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| Imagination | 2 |
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| Summary | 14 |
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| 2 | Imagination and Rational Thought | 15 |
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| Rational Thought | 16 |
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| Rational Thought and Imaginative Thought | 30 |
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| The Rationality of the Counterfactual Imagination | 38 |
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| Summary | 40 |
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| 3 | Imagining How Actions Might Have Been Different | 43 |
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| "If Only ..." Alternatives to Actions | 43 |
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| Clues from Reasoning: Counterfactual Conditionals | 48 |
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| The Rational Imagination: Why People Imagine Alternatives to Actions | 52 |
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| Summary | 66 |
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| 4 | Thinking about What Should Have Happened | 69 |
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| People Say "If Only ..." about What Should Not Have Happened | 69 |
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| Clues from Reasoning: Inferences about Obligations | 74 |
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| The Rational Imagination: Why People Focus on Forbidden Fruit | 87 |
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| Obligations and Domain-Specific Possibilities | 92 |
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| Summary | 97 |
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| 5 | Causal Relations and Counterfactuals | 99 |
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| The Focus of Counterfactual and Causal Thoughts | 100 |
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| Clues from Reasoning: Strong Causal and Enabling Relations | 106 |
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| The Rational Imagination: Why Counterfactual and Causal Thoughts Differ | 118 |
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| Summary | 126 |
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| 6 | "Even If ..." | 129 |
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| People Imagine Semifactual Alternatives | 130 |
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| Clues from Reasoning: "Even if ..." Conditionals and Inferences | 137 |
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| The Rational Imagination: Imagined and Semifactuals and Causality | 145 |
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| The Hidden Possibility | 149 |
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| Summary | 155 |
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| 7 | The "Last Chance" | 157 |
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| People Focus on Recent Events | 157 |
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| Clues from Reasoning: The Case of "Only If" Conditionals | 158 |
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| The Rational Imagination: Why People Change Recent Events | 167 |
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| Summary | 179 |
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| 8 | Individuals and Creative Thoughts | 181 |
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| Individual Differences in Imaginative Thoughts | 182 |
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| Creative Thoughts | 190 |
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| Summary | 196 |
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| 9 | The Idea of a Rational Imagination | 197 |
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| Reality and Other Possibilities | 198 |
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| The Rationality of the Counterfactual Imagination | 208 |
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| Summary | 214 |
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| References | 217 |
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| Index | 243 |
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