Imagination vs Life
[gL.edu] This article gathers contributions by Sophie Smiddy, developed within the context of the Conceptual clarification about "Information, Knowledge and Philosophy", under the supervisión of J.M. Díaz Nafría.
Abstract
In this paper I will research imagination and how relates to our quests for truth and the influence it has on humans and the way we interpret life. How do we as humans use our imagination when receiving information. Using information from historical philosophers, academic research papers and topics spoken about in lecturer to write this paper. The findings of this paper will show that imagination has a huge effect on the way the human mind views, thinks and operates. Imagination has the ability to change and control the way we perceive our past future and present.
Introduction
One’s mind is the most powerful object of the body having control over what we say and do in our everyday lives. To imagine is to represent without aiming at things as they actually, presently, and subjectively are. (1) The power of the imagination allows a person’s mind to use their creative ability to form mental images, pictures, sounds and even smells with the use of memory of the senses. It can be used as a form of escapism and fantasy and allow ones creativity to thrive in a daydreaming mind set. Imagination in one’s own truly private room in the brain allowing new ideas and creativity to burst. It has control on our way of life affecting decision making, beliefs, thoughts, opinions and creativity and is used every day.
Imagination and its Workings With Belief
As Plato once said, ‘knowledge is a justified true belief’. When one takes in information it becomes factual knowledge causing someone to believe that this is the truth. One can only know things that are true.(2) However when imagination comes into play the brain has the power to turn this information into alternate information.
The imaginative mind has the power to bend information to create an alternative perception. It gives the human mind time to think of other alternative situations and other possibility’s. One can view a certain situation from another person’s point of view. Like R. Llulls tree of knowledge and Aristotle- Linnaeus’ Tree of Living Species, the human mind expands and grows in order to understand more complex knowledge in a tree like structure in the quest for truth to understand information.
If we take the metaphor the snow is a white blanket for describing a thick layer of snow outside, we don’t believe the snow is really a blanket. Our imagination comes into place with real life information that the snow is thick. We create metaphor and descriptive words to describe everyday information. We take the factual information that the snow is in fact thick and use the word blanket using our imagination to describe how it appears to us. We believe the snow is thick. This shows the difference between imagining and believing. Our belief usually more or less mainly true whilst our imagination is not. This is the truth and our imagination bends it to help the human mind to understand more complex information. Complexity is pieces of information that require alternative or extra information in order to understand. Using ones imagination can better understand as humans are learners and we can learn by comparing. Imagination can reflect ones integrity on how someone tells the truth.
The Quest for Reality
Imagination emerges when one’s mind takes in information in everyday life. without seeing something first hand in the ‘real world’ you have to question is imagination information we have already processed and seen first-hand, or is it possible that our minds can come up images and objects that we have never seen before. We have seen this before when artists often say something came to them in a dream or a random sound or image popped up in their heads one day. But is anything truly original? Or is everything inspired or created out. Of information we have already digested?
Aristotle claims that imagination can be false even false in a positive light and often distinguished the difference from perception and imagination. For examples, dreams. Dreams are the mental use of pictures, sound and everyday life activities during a certain period of our sleep cycle. “imagination is that in virtue of which an image occurs in us” (3) However we do not perceive in dreams. We may perceive after dreams when the mind becomes conscious again however we usually are unconscious in our dreams. One can argue with Aristotle’s statement when lucid dreams are discussed. Lucid dreams are when the human mind becomes conscious and aware whilst in a dream. This allows the dreams to be perceived and allows the human mind to use imagination in a dream whilst the body is still unconscious.
Is imagination reality? Imagination is organised complexity however it is an unsustainable organisation. Whilst using imagination it can become interrupted by ‘the real world’. However if left undisturbed imagination can go on as long as the human mind lets it. The mind can build layers. With one being able to escape into their mind and build an alternate reality for themselves. Also known as day dreamers. Day dreamers as the world describes is the human entering a dream like state whilst still being conscious. Its not possible to say that imagination is reality when we have such control over it in our mind reality can be whatever we want it to be. In our everyday lives a lot of our realities are affected by the choices and actions of others.
Imagination and The Arts
We often hear how a piece of art came to someone in a dream. To imagine requires a form of creativity. To create something is to use what we already know to produce an action or an object. You must be able to use the brains creativity to imagine sounds, smells and feels. To create art one must imagine something new. Our imagination is built from sounds and pictures and senses we have already seen it makes us ask is anything truly organic? It backs up the saying that everything we dream including people and places we have already seen before in our lives. It’s difficult to imagine anything new that is not real, like a new colour or a new sound. Everything we create is partially based off of what we already know. There is a vast connection between imagination and creativity.
Imagination and music have a long historic connection used everywhere we go. For example, you’re watching the movie jaws. The iconic jaws theme song by John Williams builds tension and makes the human feel suspense. In order to create music for us to feel we must use our imagination to create a sound we understand to match that feeling. John Williams used sharp suspenseful and sudden sounds to create the effect of a shark attack through music. We can feel things through certain sounds and images using our creativity.
We also see imaginations working with dance. The humans have the possibility to move their bodies in a specific way to music or sometimes no music to deliver a feeling to the viewer allowing the spectator to use their imagination to understand the feeling the dancer is trying to portray. Harmony sinks deep into the recesses of the soul and takes its strongest hold there, bringing grace also to the body & mind as well. Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life to everything. It is the essence of order.(4) We see in ballet dances such as the nutcracker which tells a story with just dance and music. They are able to portray a story of feelings and emotions without having to speak directly to the viewer.
Solving Problems
How can imagination affect our problem solving ability’s? It allows our brain to imagine the different outcomes in our decisions in life. Imagination probably affects our decision makings more than anything. It has a complete control of the direction human life takes making imagination the ultimate control of body in one’s lifetime.
We can compare logics and thinking. Logic uses factual information to discover an outcome with facts whilst one can use their thinking using imagination to discover the end outcome using feelings and emotions. It’s interesting to compare imagination with logical thinking and how they connect with one another. If we go back to complexity we can see how imagination stems the brain allowing our brain use our logic with our imagination to use in problem solving.
Imagination and Memory
To remember something is to use the brains imagination to recreate something that already happened. There are several different kinds of memory. Factual memory, is remembering facts and things we have learned for example in school, for example Dublin is the capital of Ireland. Another type of memory would be experienced based memory of things we have seen or done in our lives replayed back in our minds using our imagination. This is where imagination and reality can become twisted. Our minds have the power to change how we perceive our memories. Its easy to mix experiences up and change how things happened in our lives and how we remember them. We see this commonly in victim testimonies. Sometimes our brain can change memories and create new ones causing us to believe them.
References
(1) Liao, Shen-yi and Tamar Gendler, "Imagination", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = [1].
(2) Ichikawa, Jonathan Jenkins and Matthias Steup, "The Analysis of Knowledge", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = [2].
(3) Aristotle, “One The Soul, (Written 350 B.C.E), De Anima iii 3, 428aa 1-2
(4) Plato, Wordsworth Dictionary of Musical Quotations, 1991, p 45