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Imagination

March 03, 2023

For other uses, see Imagination (disambiguation).

Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one's mind, which can be re-creations of past experiences, such as vivid memories with imagined changes, or completely invented and possibly fantastic scenes.[1] Imagination helps make knowledge applicable in solving problems and is fundamental to integrating experience and the learning process.[2][3][4][5] As an approach to build theory, it is called "disciplined imagination".[6] A basic training for imagination is listening to storytelling (narrative),[2][7] in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to "evoke worlds".[8]

Olin Levi Warner, Imagination (1896). Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.

One view of imagination links it with cognition,[9][10][11] seeing imagination as a cognitive process used in mental functioning. It is increasingly used - in the form of visual imagery - by clinicians in psychological treatment.[12] Imaginative thought may - speculatively - become associated with rational thought on the assumption that both activities may involve cognitive processes that may "underpin thinking about possibilities".[13] The cognate term, "mental imagery" may be used in psychology for denoting the process of reviving in the mind recollections of objects formerly given in sense perception. Since this use of the term conflicts with that of ordinary language, some psychologists have preferred to describe this process as "imaging" or "imagery" or to speak of it as "reproductive" as opposed to "productive" or "constructive" imagination. Constructive imagination is further divided into voluntary imagination driven by the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and involuntary imagination (LPFC-independent), such as REM-sleep dreaming, daydreaming, hallucinations, and spontaneous insight.[14] The voluntary types of imagination include integration of modifiers, and mental rotation. Imagined images, both novel and recalled, are seen with the "mind's eye".

Imagination, however, is not considered to be exclusively a cognitive activity because it is also linked to the body and place, particularly that it also involves setting up relationships with materials and people, precluding the sense that imagination is locked away in the head.[15]

Imagination can also be expressed through stories such as fairy tales or fantasies. Children often use such narratives and pretend play in order to exercise their imaginations. When children develop fantasy they play at two levels: first, they use role playing to act out what they have developed with their imagination, and at the second level they play again with their make-believe situation by acting as if what they have developed is an actual reality.[16]

History

Imaginatio is the standard Latin translation of the Greek term phantasia.[17] Aristotle in On the Soul considered phantasia (imagination) as the capacity for making mental images, and distinguished it from perception and from thinking. He held however that thought was always accompanied by an image.[18]

The notion of a "mind's eye" goes back at least to Cicero's reference to mentis oculi during his discussion of the orator's appropriate use of simile.[19]

In this discussion, Cicero observed that allusions to "the Syrtis of his patrimony" and "the Charybdis of his possessions" involved similes that were "too far-fetched"; and he advised the orator to, instead, just speak of "the rock" and "the gulf" (respectively) — on the grounds that "the eyes of the mind are more easily directed to those objects which we have seen, than to those which we have only heard".[20]

In medieval faculty psychology, the imagination was one of the inward wits along with memory and the sensus communis. It allowed the recombination of images, for example by combining perceptions of gold and mountain to obtain the idea of a golden mountain.[21][22]

The concept of "mind's eye" appeared in English in Chaucer's (c.1387) Man of Law's Tale in his Canterbury Tales, where he tells us that one of the three men dwelling in a castle was blind, and could only see with "the eyes of his mind"; namely, those eyes "with which all men see after they have become blind".[23]

Galileo used the imagination to conduct thought experiments, such as asking readers to imagine what direction a stone released from a sling would fly.[24]

Description

The common use of the term is for the process of forming new images in the mind that have not been previously experienced with the help of what has been seen, heard, or felt before, or at least only partially or in different combinations. This could also be involved with thinking out possible or impossible outcomes of something or someone in life's abundant situations and experiences. Some typical examples follow:

Imagination, not being limited to the acquisition of exact knowledge by the requirements of practical necessity is largely free from objective restraints. The ability to imagine one's self in another person's place is very important to social relations and understanding. Albert Einstein said, "Imagination ... is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."[25]

The same limitations beset imagination in the field of scientific hypothesis. Progress in scientific research is due largely to provisional explanations which are developed by imagination, but such hypotheses must be framed in relation to previously ascertained facts and in accordance with the principles of the particular science.

Imagination is an experimental partition of the mind used to develop theories and ideas based on functions. Taking objects from real perceptions, the imagination uses complex If-functions that involve both Semantic and Episodic memory to develop new or revised ideas.[26] This part of the mind is vital to developing better and easier ways to accomplish old and new tasks. In sociology, Imagination is used to part ways with reality and have an understanding of social interactions derived from a perspective outside of society itself. This leads to the development of theories through questions that wouldn't usually be asked. These experimental ideas can be safely conducted inside a virtual world and then, if the idea is probable and the function is true, the idea can be actualized in reality. Imagination is the key to new development of the mind and can be shared with others, progressing collectively.

Regarding the volunteer effort, imagination can be classified as:

  • involuntary (the dream from the sleep, the daydream)
  • voluntary (the reproductive imagination, the creative imagination, the dream of perspective)

Psychology

Psychologists have studied imaginative thought, not only in its exotic form of creativity and artistic expression but also in its mundane form of everyday imagination.[27] Ruth M.J. Byrne has proposed that everyday imaginative thoughts about counterfactual alternatives to reality may be based on the same cognitive processes on which rational thoughts are also based.[28] Children can engage in the creation of imaginative alternatives to reality from their very early years.[29] Cultural psychology is currently elaborating a view of imagination as a higher mental function involved in a number of everyday activities both at the individual and collective level[30] that enables people to manipulate complex meanings of both linguistic and iconic forms in the process of experiencing.

The phenomenology of imagination is discussed In The Imaginary: A Phenomenological Psychology of the Imagination (French: L'Imaginaire: Psychologie phénoménologique de l'imagination), also published under the title The Psychology of the Imagination, a 1940 book by Jean-Paul Sartre, in which he propounds his concept of the imagination and discusses what the existence of imagination shows about the nature of human consciousness.[31]

The imagination is also active in our perception of photographic images in order to make them appear real.[32]

Memory

See also: Mental image and Imagery

Memory and mental imagery, often seen as a part of the process of imagination, have been shown to be affected by one another.[33] "Images made by functional magnetic resonance imaging technology show that remembering and imagining sends blood to identify parts of the brain."[33] Various psychological factors can influence the mental processing of the brain and heighten its chance to retain information as either long-term memories or short-term memories. John Sweller indicated that experiences stored as long-term memories are easier to recall, as they are ingrained deeper in the mind. Each of these forms require information to be taught in a specific manner so as to use various regions of the brain when being processed.[34] This information can potentially help develop programs for young students to cultivate or further enhance their creative abilities from a young age. The neocortex and thalamus are responsible for controlling the brain's imagination, along with many of the brain's other functions such as consciousness and abstract thought.[citation needed] Since imagination involves many different brain functions, such as emotions, memory, thoughts, etc., portions of the brain where multiple functions occur—such as the thalamus and neocortex—are the main regions where imaginative processing has been documented.[35] The understanding of how memory and imagination are linked in the brain, paves the way to better understand one's ability to link significant past experiences with their imagination.

Perception

Piaget posited that perceptions depend on the world view of a person. The world view is the result of arranging perceptions into existing imagery by imagination. Piaget cites the example of a child saying that the moon is following her when she walks around the village at night. Like this, perceptions are integrated into the world view to make sense. Imagination is needed to make sense of perceptions.[36]

Brain activation

A study using fMRI while subjects were asked to imagine precise visual figures, to mentally disassemble them, or mentally blend them, showed activity in the occipital, frontoparietal, posterior parietal, precuneus, and dorsolateral prefrontal regions of the subject's brains.[37]

Evolution

 
Phylogenesis and ontogenesis of various components of imagination

Phylogenetic acquisition of imagination was a gradual process. The simplest form of imagination, REM-sleep dreaming, evolved in mammals with acquisition of REM sleep 140 million years ago.[38] Spontaneous insight improved in primates with acquisition of the lateral prefrontal cortex 70 million years ago. After hominins split from the chimpanzee line 6 million years ago they further improved their imagination. Prefrontal analysis was acquired 3.3 million years ago when hominins started to manufacture Mode One stone tools.[39] Progress in stone tools culture to Mode Two stone tools by 2 million years ago signify remarkable improvement of prefrontal analysis. The most advanced mechanism of imagination, prefrontal synthesis, was likely acquired by humans around 70,000 years ago and resulted in behavioral modernity.[40] This leap toward modern imagination has been characterized by paleoanthropologists as the "Cognitive revolution",[41] "Upper Paleolithic Revolution",[42] and the "Great Leap Forward".[43]

Moral imagination

Moral imagination usually describes the mental capacity to find answers to ethical questions and dilemmas through the process of a mental and intellectual imagination and visualization.

Different definitions of "moral imagination" can be found in the literature.[44]

One of the most prominent definitions was provided by the philosopher Mark Johnson: "An ability to imaginatively discern various possibilities for acting in a given situation and to envision the potential help and harm that are likely to result from a given action."[45]

In an article recently published in the Journal of Management History, the authors argued that Hitler's assassin Claus von Stauffenberg decided to dare to overthrow the Nazi regime in particular (among other factors) as a result of a process of "moral imagination." His willingness to kill Hitler was less due to his compassion for his comrades, his family or friends living at that time (actual people living at that time), but originated rather from the fact that he was already thinking about the potential problems of later generations and people he did not know. In other words, through a process of “moral imagination” he developed empathy for "abstract" people (for examples, Germans of later generations, people who were not yet alive).[46]

See also

References

  1. ^ Szczelkun, Stefan (2018-03-03). SENSE THINK ACT: a collection of exercises to experience total human ability. Stefan Szczelkun. ISBN 9781870736107. To imagine is to form experiences in the mind. These can be recreations of past experiences as they happened such as vivid memories with imagined changes, or they can be completely invented and possibly fantastic scenes.
  2. ^ a b Norman 2000 pp. 1-2
  3. ^ Brian Sutton-Smith 1988, p. 22
  4. ^ Archibald MacLeish 1970, p. 887
  5. ^ Kieran Egan 1992, pp. 50
  6. ^ Gümüsay, Ali Aslan; Reinecke, Juliane (2022). "Researching for Desirable Futures: From Real Utopias to Imagining Alternatives". Journal of Management Studies. 59: 236–242. doi:10.1111/joms.12709. hdl:10419/241847. S2CID 233645071.
  7. ^ Northrop Frye 1963, p. 49
  8. ^ As noted by Giovanni Pascoli.
  9. ^ Dierckxsens, Geoffrey (2019-10-10). "'Making Sense of (Moral) Things': Fallible Man in Relation to Enactivism". In Davidson, Scott (ed.). A Companion to Ricoeur's Fallible Man. Studies in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 104. ISBN 9781498587129. Retrieved 6 October 2022. Kant's notion of imagination [...] designates a cognitive capacity that is purely mental.
  10. ^ Perlovsky, Leonid; Deming, Ross; Ilin, Roman (2011-08-28). Emotional Cognitive Neural Algorithms with Engineering Applications: Dynamic Logic: From Vague to Crisp. Volume 371 of Studies in Computational Intelligence. Berlin: Springer. p. 86. ISBN 9783642228308. Retrieved 6 October 2022. Imagination was long considered a part of thinking processes; Kant [...] emphasized the role of imagination in the thought process, he called thinking 'a play of cognitive functions of imagination and understanding,' [...].
  11. ^ Compare: Efland, Arthur (2002-06-14). "Imagination in Cognition". Art and Cognition: Integrating the Visual Arts in the Curriculum. Language and Literacy Series. New York: Teachers College Press. p. 133. ISBN 9780807742181. Retrieved 6 October 2022. Like feelings and emotions, imagination is a prickly topic with a history of exclusion from the realm of the cognitive.
  12. ^ Pearson, Joel (2020-06-18). "The Visual Imagination". In Abraham, Anna (ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination. Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 175. ISBN 9781108429245. Retrieved 12 October 2022. Visual imagery typically refers to the voluntary creation of the conscious visual experience of an object or scene in its absence (e.g. solely in the mind). [...] imagery can play a core role in many anxiety disorders, depression, schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease, and is increasingly harnessed as a uniquely powerful tool for psychological treatment [...].
  13. ^ Byrne, Ruth M. J. (26 January 2007) [2005]. The Rational Imagination: How People Create Alternatives to Reality. A Bradford Book. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press (published 2007). p. 38. ISBN 9780262261845. Retrieved 29 September 2022. Rational thought and imaginative thought may be based on the same kinds of cognitive processes, processes that underpin thinking about possibilities.
  14. ^ Vyshedskiy, Andrey (2020). "Voluntary and Involuntary Imagination: Neurological Mechanisms, Developmental Path, Clinical Implications, and Evolutionary Trajectory". Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture. 4 (2): 1–18. doi:10.26613/esic.4.2.186. ISSN 2472-9884. JSTOR 10.26613/esic.4.2.186. S2CID 231912956.
  15. ^ Janowski, Dr Monica; Ingold, Professor Tim (2012-09-01). Imagining Landscapes: Past, Present and Future. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 9781409461449.
  16. ^ Laurence Goldman (1998). Child's play: myth, mimesis and make-believe. Oxford New York: Berg Publishers. ISBN 978-1-85973-918-1. Basically what this means is that the children use their make-believe situation and act as if what they are acting out is from a reality that already exists even though they have made it up.imagination comes after story created.
  17. ^ Cf. Andreas Dorschel, ‘Phantasia: Epistemology into Music’, Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics 45 (2022), no. 4, pp. 18–29.
  18. ^ Shields, Christopher (2020). "Supplement to Aristotle's Psychology: Imagination". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 26 Oct 2021.
  19. ^ Cicero, De Oratore, Liber III: XLI: 163.
  20. ^ J.S. (trans. and ed.), Cicero on Oratory and Orators, Harper & Brothers, (New York), 1875: Book III, C.XLI, p.239.
  21. ^ Harvey, E Ruth (1975). The Inward Wits: Psychological Theory in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. London: Warburg Institute. ISBN 9780854810512.
  22. ^ Mahoney, Edward P (1982). "Sense, intellect, and imagination in Albert, Thomas, and Siger". In Kretzmann, N; Kenny, A; Pinborg, J; Stump, E (eds.). Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 602–622. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521226059.033. ISBN 9781139055154.
  23. ^ The Man of Laws Tale, lines 550-553.
  24. ^ Franklin, James (2000). "Diagrammatic reasoning and modelling in the imagination: the secret weapons of the Scientific Revolution" (PDF). In Freeland, G; Corones, A (eds.). 1543 and All That: Image and Word, Change and Continuity in the Proto-Scientific Revolution. Dordrecht: Kluwer. pp. 53–115. ISBN 9780792359135.
  25. ^ Viereck, George Sylvester (October 26, 1929). "What life means to Einstein: an interview". The Saturday Evening Post.
  26. ^ Devitt, Aleea L.; Addis, Donna Rose; Schacter, Daniel L. (2017-10-01). "Episodic and semantic content of memory and imagination: A multilevel analysis". Memory & Cognition. 45 (7): 1078–1094. doi:10.3758/s13421-017-0716-1. ISSN 1532-5946. PMC 5702280. PMID 28547677.
  27. ^ Ward, T.B., Smith, S.M, & Vaid, J. (1997). Creative thought. Washington DC: APA
  28. ^ Byrne, R.M.J. (2005). The Rational Imagination: How People Create Alternatives to Reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  29. ^ Harris, P. (2000). The work of the imagination. London: Blackwell.
  30. ^ Tateo, L. (2015). Giambattista Vico and the psychological imagination. Culture and Psychology, vol. 21(2):145-161.
  31. ^ Sartre, Jean-Paul (1995). The psychology of imagination. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415119542. OCLC 34102867.
  32. ^ Wilson, John G. (2016-12-01). "Sartre and the Imagination: Top Shelf Magazines". Sexuality & Culture. 20 (4): 775–784. doi:10.1007/s12119-016-9358-x. ISSN 1095-5143. S2CID 148101276.
  33. ^ a b Long, Priscilla (2011). My Brain On My Mind. p. 27. ISBN 978-1612301365.
  34. ^ Leahy, Wayne; John Sweller (5 June 2007). "The Imagination Effect Increases with an Increased Intrinsic Cognitive Load". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 22 (2): 273–283. doi:10.1002/acp.1373.
  35. ^ "Welcome to ScienceForums.Net!".
  36. ^ Piaget, J. (1967). The child's conception of the world. (J. & A. Tomlinson, Trans.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. BF721 .P5 1967X
  37. ^ Alexander Schlegel, Peter J. Kohler, Sergey V. Fogelson, Prescott Alexander, Dedeepya Konuthula, and Peter Ulric Tse (Sep 16, 2013) Network structure and dynamics of the mental workspace PNAS early edition
  38. ^ Hobson, J. Allan (1 October 2009). "REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of protoconsciousness". Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 10 (11): 803–813. doi:10.1038/nrn2716. PMID 19794431. S2CID 205505278.
  39. ^ Harmand, Sonia; Lewis, Jason E.; Feibel, Craig S.; Lepre, Christopher J.; Prat, Sandrine; Lenoble, Arnaud; Boës, Xavier; Quinn, Rhonda L.; Brenet, Michel; Arroyo, Adrian; Taylor, Nicholas; Clément, Sophie; Daver, Guillaume; Brugal, Jean-Philip; Leakey, Louise; Mortlock, Richard A.; Wright, James D.; Lokorodi, Sammy; Kirwa, Christopher; Kent, Dennis V.; Roche, Hélène (20 May 2015). "3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya". Nature. 521 (7552): 310–315. Bibcode:2015Natur.521..310H. doi:10.1038/nature14464. PMID 25993961. S2CID 1207285.
  40. ^ Vyshedsky, Andrey (2019). "Neuroscience of Imagination and Implications for Human Evolution" (PDF). Curr Neurobiol. 10 (2): 89–109.
  41. ^ Harari, Yuval N. (2014). Sapiens : a brief history of humankind. London. ISBN 9781846558245. OCLC 890244744.
  42. ^ Bar-Yosef, Ofer (October 2002). "The Upper Paleolithic Revolution". Annual Review of Anthropology. 31 (1): 363–393. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085416. ISSN 0084-6570.
  43. ^ Diamond, Jared M. (2006). The third chimpanzee : the evolution and future of the human animal. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0060845503. OCLC 63839931.
  44. ^ Freeman, R. E.; Dmytriyev, S.; Wicks, A. C. (2018). The moral imagination of Patricia werhane: A festschrift. Springer International Publishing. p. 97.
  45. ^ Johnson, M. (1993). Moral imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 202.
  46. ^ Langhof, J. G.; Gueldenberg, S. (2021). "Whom to serve? Exploring the moral dimension of servant leadership: Answers from operation Valkyrie". Journal of Management History. 27 (ahead-of-print): 537–573. doi:10.1108/jmh-09-2020-0056. S2CID 238689370.
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to imagination.
 
Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article "Imagination".

Further reading

Books
  • Byrne, R. M. J. (2005). The Rational Imagination: How People Create Alternatives to Reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
  • Egan, Kieran (1992). Imagination in Teaching and Learning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Fabiani, Paolo "The Philosophy of the Imagination in Vico and Malebranche". F.U.P. (Florence UP), Italian edition 2002, English edition 2009.
  • Frye, N. (1963). The Educated Imagination. Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
  • Norman, Ron (2000) Cultivating Imagination in Adult Education Proceedings of the 41st Annual Adult Education Research.
  • Salazar, Noel B. (2010) Envisioning Eden: Mobilizing imaginaries in tourism and beyond. Oxford: Berghahn.
  • Sutton-Smith, Brian. (1988). In Search of the Imagination. In K. Egan and D. Nadaner (Eds.), Imagination and Education. New York, Teachers College Press.
  • Wilson, J. G. (2016). "Sartre and the Imagination: Top Shelf Magazines". Sexuality & Culture. 20 (4): 775–784. doi:10.1007/s12119-016-9358-x. S2CID 148101276.
Articles
  • Salazar, Noel B. (2020). On imagination and imaginaries, mobility and immobility: Seeing the forest for the trees. Culture & Psychology 1–10.
  • Salazar, Noel B. (2011). "The power of imagination in transnational mobilities". Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power. 18 (6): 576–598. doi:10.1080/1070289X.2011.672859. S2CID 143420324.
  • Watkins, Mary: "Waking Dreams" [Harper Colophon Books, 1976] and "Invisible Guests - The Development of Imaginal Dialogues" [The Analytic Press, 1986]
  • Moss, Robert: "The Three "Only" Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, and Imagination" [New World Library, September 10, 2007]
  •   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Imagination". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 304–305.

Three philosophers for whom imagination is a central concept are Kendall Walton, John Sallis and Richard Kearney. See in particular:

  • Kendall Walton, Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts. Harvard University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-674-57603-9 (pbk.).
  • John Sallis, Force of Imagination: The Sense of the Elemental (2000)
  • John Sallis, Spacings-Of Reason and Imagination. In Texts of Kant, Fichte, Hegel (1987)
  • Richard Kearney, The Wake of Imagination. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (1988); 1st Paperback Edition- (ISBN 0-8166-1714-7)
  • Richard Kearney, "Poetics of Imagining: Modern to Post-modern." Fordham University Press (1998)

External links

  The dictionary definition of imagination at Wiktionary

  •   Media related to imagination at Wikimedia Commons
  • Imagination on In Our Time at the BBC
  • Imagination, Mental Imagery, Consciousness, and Cognition: Scientific, Philosophical and Historical Approaches
  • Two-Factor Imagination Scale at the Open Directory Project
  • "The neuroscience of imagination". TED-Ed.

March 03, 2023
imagination, other, uses, disambiguation, production, simulation, novel, objects, sensations, ideas, mind, without, immediate, input, senses, stefan, szczelkun, characterises, forming, experiences, mind, which, creations, past, experiences, such, vivid, memori. For other uses see Imagination disambiguation Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects sensations and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one s mind which can be re creations of past experiences such as vivid memories with imagined changes or completely invented and possibly fantastic scenes 1 Imagination helps make knowledge applicable in solving problems and is fundamental to integrating experience and the learning process 2 3 4 5 As an approach to build theory it is called disciplined imagination 6 A basic training for imagination is listening to storytelling narrative 2 7 in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to evoke worlds 8 Olin Levi Warner Imagination 1896 Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building Washington D C One view of imagination links it with cognition 9 10 11 seeing imagination as a cognitive process used in mental functioning It is increasingly used in the form of visual imagery by clinicians in psychological treatment 12 Imaginative thought may speculatively become associated with rational thought on the assumption that both activities may involve cognitive processes that may underpin thinking about possibilities 13 The cognate term mental imagery may be used in psychology for denoting the process of reviving in the mind recollections of objects formerly given in sense perception Since this use of the term conflicts with that of ordinary language some psychologists have preferred to describe this process as imaging or imagery or to speak of it as reproductive as opposed to productive or constructive imagination Constructive imagination is further divided into voluntary imagination driven by the lateral prefrontal cortex LPFC and involuntary imagination LPFC independent such as REM sleep dreaming daydreaming hallucinations and spontaneous insight 14 The voluntary types of imagination include integration of modifiers and mental rotation Imagined images both novel and recalled are seen with the mind s eye Imagination however is not considered to be exclusively a cognitive activity because it is also linked to the body and place particularly that it also involves setting up relationships with materials and people precluding the sense that imagination is locked away in the head 15 Imagination can also be expressed through stories such as fairy tales or fantasies Children often use such narratives and pretend play in order to exercise their imaginations When children develop fantasy they play at two levels first they use role playing to act out what they have developed with their imagination and at the second level they play again with their make believe situation by acting as if what they have developed is an actual reality 16 Contents 1 History 2 Description 3 Psychology 4 Memory 5 Perception 6 Brain activation 7 Evolution 8 Moral imagination 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External linksHistory EditImaginatio is the standard Latin translation of the Greek term phantasia 17 Aristotle in On the Soul considered phantasia imagination as the capacity for making mental images and distinguished it from perception and from thinking He held however that thought was always accompanied by an image 18 The notion of a mind s eye goes back at least to Cicero s reference to mentis oculi during his discussion of the orator s appropriate use of simile 19 In this discussion Cicero observed that allusions to the Syrtis of his patrimony and the Charybdis of his possessions involved similes that were too far fetched and he advised the orator to instead just speak of the rock and the gulf respectively on the grounds that the eyes of the mind are more easily directed to those objects which we have seen than to those which we have only heard 20 In medieval faculty psychology the imagination was one of the inward wits along with memory and the sensus communis It allowed the recombination of images for example by combining perceptions of gold and mountain to obtain the idea of a golden mountain 21 22 The concept of mind s eye appeared in English in Chaucer s c 1387 Man of Law s Tale in his Canterbury Tales where he tells us that one of the three men dwelling in a castle was blind and could only see with the eyes of his mind namely those eyes with which all men see after they have become blind 23 Galileo used the imagination to conduct thought experiments such as asking readers to imagine what direction a stone released from a sling would fly 24 Description EditThe common use of the term is for the process of forming new images in the mind that have not been previously experienced with the help of what has been seen heard or felt before or at least only partially or in different combinations This could also be involved with thinking out possible or impossible outcomes of something or someone in life s abundant situations and experiences Some typical examples follow Fairy tale Fiction A form of verisimilitude often invoked in fantasy and science fiction invites readers to pretend such stories are true by referring to objects of the mind such as fictional books or years that do not exist apart from an imaginary world Imagination not being limited to the acquisition of exact knowledge by the requirements of practical necessity is largely free from objective restraints The ability to imagine one s self in another person s place is very important to social relations and understanding Albert Einstein said Imagination is more important than knowledge Knowledge is limited Imagination encircles the world 25 The same limitations beset imagination in the field of scientific hypothesis Progress in scientific research is due largely to provisional explanations which are developed by imagination but such hypotheses must be framed in relation to previously ascertained facts and in accordance with the principles of the particular science Imagination is an experimental partition of the mind used to develop theories and ideas based on functions Taking objects from real perceptions the imagination uses complex If functions that involve both Semantic and Episodic memory to develop new or revised ideas 26 This part of the mind is vital to developing better and easier ways to accomplish old and new tasks In sociology Imagination is used to part ways with reality and have an understanding of social interactions derived from a perspective outside of society itself This leads to the development of theories through questions that wouldn t usually be asked These experimental ideas can be safely conducted inside a virtual world and then if the idea is probable and the function is true the idea can be actualized in reality Imagination is the key to new development of the mind and can be shared with others progressing collectively Regarding the volunteer effort imagination can be classified as involuntary the dream from the sleep the daydream voluntary the reproductive imagination the creative imagination the dream of perspective Psychology EditPsychologists have studied imaginative thought not only in its exotic form of creativity and artistic expression but also in its mundane form of everyday imagination 27 Ruth M J Byrne has proposed that everyday imaginative thoughts about counterfactual alternatives to reality may be based on the same cognitive processes on which rational thoughts are also based 28 Children can engage in the creation of imaginative alternatives to reality from their very early years 29 Cultural psychology is currently elaborating a view of imagination as a higher mental function involved in a number of everyday activities both at the individual and collective level 30 that enables people to manipulate complex meanings of both linguistic and iconic forms in the process of experiencing The phenomenology of imagination is discussed In The Imaginary A Phenomenological Psychology of the Imagination French L Imaginaire Psychologie phenomenologique de l imagination also published under the title The Psychology of the Imagination a 1940 book by Jean Paul Sartre in which he propounds his concept of the imagination and discusses what the existence of imagination shows about the nature of human consciousness 31 The imagination is also active in our perception of photographic images in order to make them appear real 32 Memory EditSee also Mental image and Imagery Memory and mental imagery often seen as a part of the process of imagination have been shown to be affected by one another 33 Images made by functional magnetic resonance imaging technology show that remembering and imagining sends blood to identify parts of the brain 33 Various psychological factors can influence the mental processing of the brain and heighten its chance to retain information as either long term memories or short term memories John Sweller indicated that experiences stored as long term memories are easier to recall as they are ingrained deeper in the mind Each of these forms require information to be taught in a specific manner so as to use various regions of the brain when being processed 34 This information can potentially help develop programs for young students to cultivate or further enhance their creative abilities from a young age The neocortex and thalamus are responsible for controlling the brain s imagination along with many of the brain s other functions such as consciousness and abstract thought citation needed Since imagination involves many different brain functions such as emotions memory thoughts etc portions of the brain where multiple functions occur such as the thalamus and neocortex are the main regions where imaginative processing has been documented 35 The understanding of how memory and imagination are linked in the brain paves the way to better understand one s ability to link significant past experiences with their imagination Perception EditPiaget posited that perceptions depend on the world view of a person The world view is the result of arranging perceptions into existing imagery by imagination Piaget cites the example of a child saying that the moon is following her when she walks around the village at night Like this perceptions are integrated into the world view to make sense Imagination is needed to make sense of perceptions 36 Brain activation EditA study using fMRI while subjects were asked to imagine precise visual figures to mentally disassemble them or mentally blend them showed activity in the occipital frontoparietal posterior parietal precuneus and dorsolateral prefrontal regions of the subject s brains 37 Evolution Edit Phylogenesis and ontogenesis of various components of imagination Phylogenetic acquisition of imagination was a gradual process The simplest form of imagination REM sleep dreaming evolved in mammals with acquisition of REM sleep 140 million years ago 38 Spontaneous insight improved in primates with acquisition of the lateral prefrontal cortex 70 million years ago After hominins split from the chimpanzee line 6 million years ago they further improved their imagination Prefrontal analysis was acquired 3 3 million years ago when hominins started to manufacture Mode One stone tools 39 Progress in stone tools culture to Mode Two stone tools by 2 million years ago signify remarkable improvement of prefrontal analysis The most advanced mechanism of imagination prefrontal synthesis was likely acquired by humans around 70 000 years ago and resulted in behavioral modernity 40 This leap toward modern imagination has been characterized by paleoanthropologists as the Cognitive revolution 41 Upper Paleolithic Revolution 42 and the Great Leap Forward 43 Moral imagination EditMoral imagination usually describes the mental capacity to find answers to ethical questions and dilemmas through the process of a mental and intellectual imagination and visualization Different definitions of moral imagination can be found in the literature 44 One of the most prominent definitions was provided by the philosopher Mark Johnson An ability to imaginatively discern various possibilities for acting in a given situation and to envision the potential help and harm that are likely to result from a given action 45 In an article recently published in the Journal of Management History the authors argued that Hitler s assassin Claus von Stauffenberg decided to dare to overthrow the Nazi regime in particular among other factors as a result of a process of moral imagination His willingness to kill Hitler was less due to his compassion for his comrades his family or friends living at that time actual people living at that time but originated rather from the fact that he was already thinking about the potential problems of later generations and people he did not know In other words through a process of moral imagination he developed empathy for abstract people for examples Germans of later generations people who were not yet alive 46 See also Edit Philosophy portal Psychology portalArtificial imagination Body of light Cognitive dissonance Creative visualization Creativity Decatastrophizing Exaggeration Fantasy psychology Fictional countries Guided imagery Imagery The Imaginary psychoanalysis Imaginary sociology Imagination Age Imagination inflation Intuition psychology Magic realism Mental image Mimesis Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism Sociological imagination Truth Tulpa VerisimilitudeReferences Edit Szczelkun Stefan 2018 03 03 SENSE THINK ACT a collection of exercises to experience total human ability Stefan Szczelkun ISBN 9781870736107 To imagine is to form experiences in the mind These can be recreations of past experiences as they happened such as vivid memories with imagined changes or they can be completely invented and possibly fantastic scenes a b Norman 2000 pp 1 2 Brian Sutton Smith 1988 p 22 Archibald MacLeish 1970 p 887 Kieran Egan 1992 pp 50 Gumusay Ali Aslan Reinecke Juliane 2022 Researching for Desirable Futures From Real Utopias to Imagining Alternatives Journal of Management Studies 59 236 242 doi 10 1111 joms 12709 hdl 10419 241847 S2CID 233645071 Northrop Frye 1963 p 49 As noted by Giovanni Pascoli Dierckxsens Geoffrey 2019 10 10 Making Sense of Moral Things Fallible Man in Relation to Enactivism In Davidson Scott ed A Companion to Ricoeur s Fallible Man Studies in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur Rowman amp Littlefield p 104 ISBN 9781498587129 Retrieved 6 October 2022 Kant s notion of imagination designates a cognitive capacity that is purely mental Perlovsky Leonid Deming Ross Ilin Roman 2011 08 28 Emotional Cognitive Neural Algorithms with Engineering Applications Dynamic Logic From Vague to Crisp Volume 371 of Studies in Computational Intelligence Berlin Springer p 86 ISBN 9783642228308 Retrieved 6 October 2022 Imagination was long considered a part of thinking processes Kant emphasized the role of imagination in the thought process he called thinking a play of cognitive functions of imagination and understanding Compare Efland Arthur 2002 06 14 Imagination in Cognition Art and Cognition Integrating the Visual Arts in the Curriculum Language and Literacy Series New York Teachers College Press p 133 ISBN 9780807742181 Retrieved 6 October 2022 Like feelings and emotions imagination is a prickly topic with a history of exclusion from the realm of the cognitive Pearson Joel 2020 06 18 The Visual Imagination In Abraham Anna ed The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology Cambridge Cambridge University Press p 175 ISBN 9781108429245 Retrieved 12 October 2022 Visual imagery typically refers to the voluntary creation of the conscious visual experience of an object or scene in its absence e g solely in the mind imagery can play a core role in many anxiety disorders depression schizophrenia and Parkinson s disease and is increasingly harnessed as a uniquely powerful tool for psychological treatment Byrne Ruth M J 26 January 2007 2005 The Rational Imagination How People Create Alternatives to Reality A Bradford Book Cambridge Massachusetts MIT Press published 2007 p 38 ISBN 9780262261845 Retrieved 29 September 2022 Rational thought and imaginative thought may be based on the same kinds of cognitive processes processes that underpin thinking about possibilities Vyshedskiy Andrey 2020 Voluntary and Involuntary Imagination Neurological Mechanisms Developmental Path Clinical Implications and Evolutionary Trajectory Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture 4 2 1 18 doi 10 26613 esic 4 2 186 ISSN 2472 9884 JSTOR 10 26613 esic 4 2 186 S2CID 231912956 Janowski Dr Monica Ingold Professor Tim 2012 09 01 Imagining Landscapes Past Present and Future Ashgate Publishing Ltd ISBN 9781409461449 Laurence Goldman 1998 Child s play myth mimesis and make believe Oxford New York Berg Publishers ISBN 978 1 85973 918 1 Basically what this means is that the children use their make believe situation and act as if what they are acting out is from a reality that already exists even though they have made it up imagination comes after story created Cf Andreas Dorschel Phantasia Epistemology into Music Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics 45 2022 no 4 pp 18 29 Shields Christopher 2020 Supplement to Aristotle s Psychology Imagination Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Retrieved 26 Oct 2021 Cicero De Oratore Liber III XLI 163 J S trans and ed Cicero on Oratory and Orators Harper amp Brothers New York 1875 Book III C XLI p 239 Harvey E Ruth 1975 The Inward Wits Psychological Theory in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance London Warburg Institute ISBN 9780854810512 Mahoney Edward P 1982 Sense intellect and imagination in Albert Thomas and Siger In Kretzmann N Kenny A Pinborg J Stump E eds Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 602 622 doi 10 1017 CHOL9780521226059 033 ISBN 9781139055154 The Man of Laws Tale lines 550 553 Franklin James 2000 Diagrammatic reasoning and modelling in the imagination the secret weapons of the Scientific Revolution PDF In Freeland G Corones A eds 1543 and All That Image and Word Change and Continuity in the Proto Scientific Revolution Dordrecht Kluwer pp 53 115 ISBN 9780792359135 Viereck George Sylvester October 26 1929 What life means to Einstein an interview The Saturday Evening Post Devitt Aleea L Addis Donna Rose Schacter Daniel L 2017 10 01 Episodic and semantic content of memory and imagination A multilevel analysis Memory amp Cognition 45 7 1078 1094 doi 10 3758 s13421 017 0716 1 ISSN 1532 5946 PMC 5702280 PMID 28547677 Ward T B Smith S M amp Vaid J 1997 Creative thought Washington DC APA Byrne R M J 2005 The Rational Imagination How People Create Alternatives to Reality Cambridge MA MIT Press Harris P 2000 The work of the imagination London Blackwell Tateo L 2015 Giambattista Vico and the psychological imagination Culture and Psychology vol 21 2 145 161 Sartre Jean Paul 1995 The psychology of imagination London Routledge ISBN 9780415119542 OCLC 34102867 Wilson John G 2016 12 01 Sartre and the Imagination Top Shelf Magazines Sexuality amp Culture 20 4 775 784 doi 10 1007 s12119 016 9358 x ISSN 1095 5143 S2CID 148101276 a b Long Priscilla 2011 My Brain On My Mind p 27 ISBN 978 1612301365 Leahy Wayne John Sweller 5 June 2007 The Imagination Effect Increases with an Increased Intrinsic Cognitive Load Applied Cognitive Psychology 22 2 273 283 doi 10 1002 acp 1373 Welcome to ScienceForums Net Piaget J 1967 The child s conception of the world J amp A Tomlinson Trans London Routledge amp Kegan Paul BF721 P5 1967X Alexander Schlegel Peter J Kohler Sergey V Fogelson Prescott Alexander Dedeepya Konuthula and Peter Ulric Tse Sep 16 2013 Network structure and dynamics of the mental workspace PNAS early edition Hobson J Allan 1 October 2009 REM sleep and dreaming towards a theory of protoconsciousness Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10 11 803 813 doi 10 1038 nrn2716 PMID 19794431 S2CID 205505278 Harmand Sonia Lewis Jason E Feibel Craig S Lepre Christopher J Prat Sandrine Lenoble Arnaud Boes Xavier Quinn Rhonda L Brenet Michel Arroyo Adrian Taylor Nicholas Clement Sophie Daver Guillaume Brugal Jean Philip Leakey Louise Mortlock Richard A Wright James D Lokorodi Sammy Kirwa Christopher Kent Dennis V Roche Helene 20 May 2015 3 3 million year old stone tools from Lomekwi 3 West Turkana Kenya Nature 521 7552 310 315 Bibcode 2015Natur 521 310H doi 10 1038 nature14464 PMID 25993961 S2CID 1207285 Vyshedsky Andrey 2019 Neuroscience of Imagination and Implications for Human Evolution PDF Curr Neurobiol 10 2 89 109 Harari Yuval N 2014 Sapiens a brief history of humankind London ISBN 9781846558245 OCLC 890244744 Bar Yosef Ofer October 2002 The Upper Paleolithic Revolution Annual Review of Anthropology 31 1 363 393 doi 10 1146 annurev anthro 31 040402 085416 ISSN 0084 6570 Diamond Jared M 2006 The third chimpanzee the evolution and future of the human animal New York HarperPerennial ISBN 0060845503 OCLC 63839931 Freeman R E Dmytriyev S Wicks A C 2018 The moral imagination of Patricia werhane A festschrift Springer International Publishing p 97 Johnson M 1993 Moral imagination Chicago University of Chicago Press p 202 Langhof J G Gueldenberg S 2021 Whom to serve Exploring the moral dimension of servant leadership Answers from operation Valkyrie Journal of Management History 27 ahead of print 537 573 doi 10 1108 jmh 09 2020 0056 S2CID 238689370 Wikiquote has quotations related to imagination Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article Imagination Further reading EditBooksByrne R M J 2005 The Rational Imagination How People Create Alternatives to Reality Cambridge MA MIT Press Egan Kieran 1992 Imagination in Teaching and Learning Chicago University of Chicago Press Fabiani Paolo The Philosophy of the Imagination in Vico and Malebranche F U P Florence UP Italian edition 2002 English edition 2009 Frye N 1963 The Educated Imagination Toronto Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Norman Ron 2000 Cultivating Imagination in Adult Education Proceedings of the 41st Annual Adult Education Research Salazar Noel B 2010 Envisioning Eden Mobilizing imaginaries in tourism and beyond Oxford Berghahn Sutton Smith Brian 1988 In Search of the Imagination In K Egan and D Nadaner Eds Imagination and Education New York Teachers College Press Wilson J G 2016 Sartre and the Imagination Top Shelf Magazines Sexuality amp Culture 20 4 775 784 doi 10 1007 s12119 016 9358 x S2CID 148101276 ArticlesSalazar Noel B 2020 On imagination and imaginaries mobility and immobility Seeing the forest for the trees Culture amp Psychology 1 10 Salazar Noel B 2011 The power of imagination in transnational mobilities Identities Global Studies in Culture and Power 18 6 576 598 doi 10 1080 1070289X 2011 672859 S2CID 143420324 Watkins Mary Waking Dreams Harper Colophon Books 1976 and Invisible Guests The Development of Imaginal Dialogues The Analytic Press 1986 Moss Robert The Three Only Things Tapping the Power of Dreams Coincidence and Imagination New World Library September 10 2007 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Imagination Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 14 11th ed Cambridge University Press pp 304 305 Three philosophers for whom imagination is a central concept are Kendall Walton John Sallis and Richard Kearney See in particular Kendall Walton Mimesis as Make Believe On the Foundations of the Representational Arts Harvard University Press 1990 ISBN 0 674 57603 9 pbk John Sallis Force of Imagination The Sense of the Elemental 2000 John Sallis Spacings Of Reason and Imagination In Texts of Kant Fichte Hegel 1987 Richard Kearney The Wake of Imagination Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 1st Paperback Edition ISBN 0 8166 1714 7 Richard Kearney Poetics of Imagining Modern to Post modern Fordham University Press 1998 External links Edit The dictionary definition of imagination at Wiktionary Media related to imagination at Wikimedia Commons Imagination on In Our Time at the BBC Imagination Mental Imagery Consciousness and Cognition Scientific Philosophical and Historical Approaches Two Factor Imagination Scale at the Open Directory Project The neuroscience of imagination TED Ed Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Imagination amp oldid 1136177206, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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