Imagination aids pure understanding to those willing to think beyond themselves and common parameters. It is not just something associated with creative people. Rather, it is a tool embedded in every human that enables knowledge to form and perception to be clarified and/or enhanced.
There are two types of imagination: the first is the lovely, almost dream-like kind of fantasy where people imagine a different reality (writers turn this kind into books and stories, filmmakers into movies, artists into art, and so on). It commonly happens amongst people when they daydream. The second is a more practical use “when [people] imagine in an attempt to make sense of what other people are thinking.” For instance, if I say, ‘the apple flew through the air and exploded at the wall,’ your mind just created an image of an apple (specifics known to you) flying through the air and exploding at a wall. This happens all the time when people have conversations. Our imagination never stops. Aristotle links imagination to images as a part of human cognition, saying “whenever one contemplates, one necessarily at the same time contemplates in images.” (Aristotle, 350 BC)
Is imagination directly connected to the mind so that it works with mind and body? Or is it a part of the mind itself? If you think of the mind as a computer, then imagination is a program that runs on the computer (the mind). It’s what enables you to easily use the computer. Descartes describes it as “…nothing else but an application of the cognitive faculty to a body which is intimately present to it, and which therefore exists.” (Descartes, 1641) So, imagination is part of the mind which is part of the body. To separate the three majorly would be like separating hardware components of a computer; you can, but it makes better sense to put all of them together because one does not just function on its own. They all work differently — but together to run a system as a whole.
Some people associate imagination with just children or creatives. According to John Dewey, “imagination is not a rare activity engaged in only by so-called ‘creative people’. Rather, it is common to us all as a vehicle of learning, by which possibilities we determine to bring new realities into existence.” Children don’t necessarily have more imagination than adults. There are different imaginations for varying ages. For instance, a child might have an imaginary friend, whereas an adult might imagine something they don’t have yet but plan to obtain. Children don’t try to prove that something exists; they just accept it. Adults on the other hand, are constantly analyzing imagination to determine its validity.
Can we be tricked by our imagination? If a person is schizophrenic, is it their imagination that fools them or a chemical imbalance in their mind that uses their imagination to fool them? Hume observes the mind as a kind of trickster:
“It cannot be doubted, that the mind is endowed with several powers and faculties, that these powers are distinct from each other, that what is really distinct to the immediate perception may be distinguished by reflection; and consequently, that there is a truth and falsehood in all propositions on this subject, and a truth and falsehood, which lie not beyond the compass of human understanding.” (Hume, 1748)
So, the mind can play tricks on itself. That goes hand-in-hand with perception depending on the health of the brain. Imagination is a part of the brain, and if a person is schizophrenic (which is an illness in the brain) then it all works together still. But you don’t have to be schizophrenic to think you saw something and later realized nothing was in fact there. For instance, say you put on a pair of glasses that you have never worn before, and all of a sudden you see something out of the corner of your eye move. When you turn your head to the place of interest for a full view to investigate and see that nothing has actually moved, you begin to wonder if you imagined it. But then when you turn your head around to see what is behind you, and you see that something is indeed moving, you recognize that something as being the possible culprit out of the corner of your eye by a sort of reflection of your glasses. You then realize that no, you are not crazy, you just saw a glimpse of what was behind you through your glasses that distorted your perception. So, you can be tricked by perception (which is not imagination) and by your ill mind (which uses imagination).
Memory is another function of the brain. As we get older, our memories fade. Imagination (said earlier as a function of the brain) must be used to recall memories as they are themselves images. Do we draw more on imagination as we get older then? Consider recalling a memory of yesterday. Now consider recalling a memory of ten years ago. Compare that memory of ten years ago shared with another. They recall it slightly different, don’t they? Our imagination, therefore, works harder to recall more distant memories as it makes up for things that are not so clear anymore with things that make sense as to have happened.
Imagination can be a wonderful thing; an escape for the melancholy and disturbed, or a helping hand to the creative. It can also be a burden; especially if one cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. Imagination is almost like a superpower — it is a function apart of us that provides a vision in the mind. It is one of our greatest abilities, as J. K. Rowling once said: “We do not need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”
Original submission date: July 29, 2018 to University of North Texas.
Additional Sources:
Descartes, René. “Meditations on First Philosophy.” Classics of Philosophy, edited by Louis P Pojman and Lewis Vaughn, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 489–516.
Hume, David. “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.” Classics of Philosophy, edited by Louis P Pojman and Lewis Vaughn, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 721–781.
Shields, Christopher. “Imagination.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 2016, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-psychology/suppl4.html. Accessed 31 July 2018.
