
SYNONYMS imagination, fancy, fantasy. These nouns refer to the power of the mind to form images, especially of what is not present to the senses. Imagination is the most broadly applicable: "In the world of words, the imagination is one of the forces of nature" (Wallace Stevens). Fancy especially suggests mental invention that is whimsical, capricious, or playful and that is characteristically well removed from reality: "All power of fancy over reason is a degree of insanity" (Samuel Johnson). Fantasy is applied principally to elaborate or extravagant fancy as a product of the imagination given free rein: "The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy" (Lionel Trilling).
noun
Definition: power to create in one's mind
Antonyms: being, entity, existence, material, reality, substance, truth
imagination, the mind's capacity to generate images of objects, states, or actions that have not been felt or experienced by the senses. In the discussion of psychology and art prior to Romanticism, imagination was usually synonymous with fancy, and commonly opposed to the faculty of reason, either as complementary to it or as contrary to it. S. T. Coleridge's famous distinction between fancy and imagination in his Biographia Literaria (1817) emphasized the imagination's vitally creative power of dissolving and uniting images into new forms, and of reconciling opposed qualities into a new unity. This freely creative and transforming power of the imagination was a central principle of Romanticism.
Most directly, the faculty of reviving or especially creating images in the mind's eye. But more generally, the ability to create and rehearse possible situations, to combine knowledge in unusual ways, or to invent thought experiments. Coleridge was the first aesthetic theorist to distinguish the possibility of disciplined, creative use of the imagination, as opposed to the idle play of fancy. Imagination is involved in any flexible rehearsal of different approaches to a problem and is wrongly thought of as opposed to reason. It also bears an interesting relation to the process of deciding whether a projected scenario is genuinely possible. We seem able to imagine ourselves having been Napoleon, and unable to imagine space being spherical, yet further reflection may lead us to think that the first supposition is impossible and the second entirely possible.
1. Imagination and psychological theory
Contemporary child-rearing and educational practices stress the importance of fostering children's imagination, and in adult life a high premium is placed on activities and outputs which demonstrate imagination. Evolutionary theorists see it as a crucial feature of the cognitive apparatus which sets humans apart from other animals. Yet studies of imagination have played a comparatively small part in mainstream psychology — reflecting theoretical influences which have acted in combination to downgrade its importance. Behaviourists deemed imagination, along with consciousness and other complex attributes of mind, a meaningless construct, because it was impossible to operationalize or measure. Psychodynamic perspectives have recognized its significance, but presented it as 'primary process thinking' — a primitive, associative, non-rational form of thought linked to both dreaming and pathology. In reaction to this, cognitive psychology has either ignored imagination, or sought to explain it within the framework of conscious, logical reasoning processes — 'secondary process thinking' — which is its central subject matter. The theoretical hiatus between psychodynamic and other accounts, which obscures the probable role of both associative and logical processes (Martindale 1999), has stunted the development of a satisfactory psychology of imagination. Where the term features (for instance, in research on pretence), the imaginative content of the activity is rarely clearly defined.2. Components of imagination
Mental imagery — the capacity to 'see things in the mind's eye', or indeed 'hear them in the mind's ear' — is the most obvious concomitant of imagination. If we ask someone to imagine themselves on holiday, they may report sights, smells, sounds, and tastes from an actual holiday, that is, memories of past experiences stored or accessed in the form of images (see mental imagery for a discussion of the representations involved). However, imagination is not necessarily or exclusively image based. The processes outlined below are likely to involve verbal as well as non-verbal or imaginal thinking.3. Evolution of imagination
Studies within cognitive archaeology and evolutionary psychology suggest that fully fledged imagination may have emerged only in the last 100,000 years, as a unique characteristic of Homo sapiens sapiens. As much as 2 million years ago, members of the first species of the genus Homo (Homo habilis) displayed a limited capacity to 'imagine' a future outcome, in their ability to fashion stones into simple tools. Since they transported these tools to distant sources of food, these hominids could also perhaps 'see' in their mind's eye locations they had visited earlier. But these embryonic forms of imagination were practised imitatively and inflexibly for a further 1.5 million years, with only gradual changes in technological and behavioural complexity and, by implication, cognitive sophistication. According to Foley (1995), the capacity for counterfactual thinking was a later and crucial evolutionary stage, which coincided with the significant increase in hominid brain size some 300,000 years ago. A hominid capable of imagining the possible outcomes of different actions, or the possible responses of its peers, would have the selective advantage of control over its physical and social environment, uncompromised by expenditure of energy in physically enacting and evaluating alternative outcomes.
4. Development of imagination in children
Current theories of the development of imagination in children echo evolutionary approaches in stressing the link between imaginative thinking and advanced social and cognitive skills. Much of this work focuses on observational and experimental studies of pretence. Typically developing children display simple forms of pretence, such as using one object to represent another, from as early as 12 months. More elaborate forms of pretence unfold thereafter, in which isolated pretend acts become incorporated into complex scripts (such as making a cup of tea), and children adopt pretend roles (such as Batman or 'mothers and fathers') in social interactions. Leslie (1987) described pretence as an ontogenetically early form of meta-representation. The representation 'this is a banana' is decoupled from reality to allow acceptance of the proposition, in pretence, that 'this is a telephone'. This, he argues, 'kick starts' the general capacity for counterfactual thinking. By contrast, Harris (2000) argues that children employ pretence partly in order to learn about reality. His claim that elements of reality are imported into pretence in order to 'run through' their consequences may explain why a pretend episode such as a fight can generate genuine emotional responses. Both theories give pretence a central role in developing the child's theory of mind, and hence their capacity to enter the social world of other people.5. Impairment of imagination
The extensive imaginative impairments documented in people with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), and the usually profound consequences for how such people engage with the human world, serve as a 'test case' for the importance of imagination in human cognition and social behaviour. Yet if imagination is such a crucial human adaptation, why should genes conferring susceptibility to a condition marked by imagination deficit persist in human populations? Baron-Cohen et al. (2002) have speculated that the presence in early human societies of some individuals with a typically autistic cognitive style, combining diminished imaginative capacity with an enhanced grasp of physical and mechanical systems, might have had certain selective advantages. These would be the individuals who, while the shamans contacted the spirit world, or dealt with social disputes among kin, and while the artists embellished cave walls, would be fulfilling other functions such as predicting the path of an oncoming storm, or building a robust dwelling.6. Imagination and mental disorder
We find a mirror image for imaginative impairment in the wild, uncontrolled imagination that accompanies mental disorders such as manic depression and psychosis. Some research (see Jamison 1993) suggests that composers and artists such as Schumann and Van Gogh have been particularly prolific during hypomania or borderline psychosis, states that precede actual breakdown, when thought and behaviour become too disorganized for creative output. The gradual onset of schizophrenic illness in the painter Louis Wain is precisely charted in his series of cat paintings, first animated and intriguing, then developing an increasingly nightmarish, demonic, and fragmented quality as the disorder took hold.7. Imagination and the brain
The notion that we could identify brain specific correlates for imaginary thoughts, such as that of a lion man, seems far fetched. However, both PET and fMRI studies have begun to reveal some of the areas of the brain involved in imagery, which as we saw earlier is a basic, though not universal, feature of imagination. As Damasio observes, cortical brain circuits involved in creative imagination are shaped by each individual's activities and experiences.— Ilona Roth
n.
A warehouse of facts, with poet and liar in joint ownership.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
— Albert Einstein
LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!
Quotes:
"The Chinese pianist Liu Chi Kung was imprisoned for seven years during the Cultural Revolution, during which time he had no access to a piano. When he returned to giving concerts again after he was released, his playing was better than ever. Asked how this was possible since he had not practice for seven years, he replied: I did practice, every day. I rehearsed every piece I had ever played, note by note, in my mind."
- Bernie Zilbergeld
"First have being in your mind. Make real in your mind then bring that being into reality. The genius is he who sees what is not yet and causes it to come to be."
- Peter Nivio Zarlenga
"An idea is salvation by imagination."
- Frank Lloyd Wright
"What you see is what you get."
- Flip Wilson
"Imagination is a quality given a man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is."
- Oscar Wilde
"Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our life."
- Simone Weil
See more famous quotes about Imagination

|
|
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2012) |
Imagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is the ability of forming images and sensations when they are not perceived through sight, hearing, or other senses. Imagination helps provide meaning to experience and understanding to knowledge; it is a fundamental faculty through which people make sense of the world,[1][2][3] and it also plays a key role in the learning process.[1][4] A basic training for imagination is listening to storytelling (narrative),[1][5] in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to "evoke worlds."[6] It is a whole cycle of image formation or any sensation which may be described as "hidden" as it takes place without anyone else's knowledge.The research has suggested that about 60% of people are imaginative. A person may imagine according to his mood, it may be good or bad depending on the situation. Some people imagine in a state of tension or gloominess in order to calm themselves. It is accepted as the innate ability and process of inventing partial or complete personal realms within the mind from elements derived from sense perceptions of the shared world.[citation needed] The term is technically used in psychology for the process of reviving in the mind, percepts 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. Imagined images are seen with the "mind's eye."
Imagination can also be expressed through stories such as fairy tales or fantasies. Most famous inventions or entertainment products were developed from the inspiration of someone's imagination.
Children often use narratives or pretend play in order to exercise their imagination. 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 that already exists in narrative myth.[7]
|
Contents
|
"Imagination is an effort of the mind to develop a discourse that had previously been known, a development of a concept of what is already there by the help of our reason, to develop a results of new thinking."[citation needed] 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. Some typical examples follow:
Imagination in this sense, not being limited to the acquisition of exact knowledge by the requirements of practical necessity, is, up to a certain point, 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."[8]
But in reality, without knowledge, imagination can not be developed.
In various spheres, however, even imagination is in practice limited: thus a person whose imaginations do violence to the elementary laws of thought, or to the necessary principles of practical possibility, or to the reasonable probabilities of a given case is regarded as insane.
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 to develop new or revised ideas. This part of the mind is vital to developing better and easier ways to accomplish old and new tasks. 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:
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.[9] Ruth M.J. Byrne has proposed that everyday imaginative thoughts about counterfactual alternatives to reality may be based on the same cognitive processes that rational thoughts are based on.[10] Children can engage in the creation of imaginative alternatives to reality from their very early years.[11]
Memory and imagination have been shown to be affected by one another, found through research in Priscilla Long's piece My Brain On My Mind "Images made by functional magnetic resonance imaging technology show that remembering and imagining sends blood to identical parts of the brain."[12] An optimal balance of intrinsic, extraneous, and germane form of information processing can heighten the chance of the brain to retain information as long term memories, rather than short term, memories. This is significant because experiences stored as long term memories are easier to be recalled, 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.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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.
From the work of Piaget it is known 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.[16]
Imagination differs fundamentally from belief because the subject understands that what is personally invented by the mind does not necessarily affect the course of action taken in the apparently shared world, while beliefs are part of what one holds as truths about both the shared and personal worlds. The play of imagination, apart from the obvious limitations (e.g. of avoiding explicit self-contradiction), is conditioned only by the general trend of the mind at a given moment. Belief, on the other hand, is immediately related to practical activity: it is perfectly possible to imagine oneself a millionaire, but unless one believes it one does not, therefore, act as such. Belief endeavors to conform to the subject's experienced conditions or faith in the possibility of those conditions; whereas imagination as such is specifically free. The dividing line between imagination and belief varies widely in different stages of technological development. Thus in more extreme cases, someone from a primitive culture who ill frames an ideal reconstruction of the causes of his illness, and attributes it to the hostile magic of an enemy based on faith and tradition rather than science. In ignorance of the science of pathology the subject is satisfied with this explanation, and actually believes in it, sometimes to the point of death, due to what is known as the nocebo effect.
It follows that the learned distinction between imagination and belief depends in practice on religion, tradition, and culture.
The world as experienced is an interpretation of data arriving from the senses; as such, it is perceived as real by contrast to most thoughts and imaginings. Users of hallucinogenic drugs are said to have a heightened imagination. This difference is only one of degree and can be altered by several historic causes, namely changes to brain chemistry, hypnosis or other altered states of consciousness, meditation, many hallucinogenic drugs, and electricity applied directly to specific parts of the brain. The difference between imagined and perceived reality can be proven by psychosis. Many mental illnesses can be attributed to this inability to distinguish between the sensed and the internally created worlds. Some cultures and traditions even view the apparently shared world as an illusion of the mind as with the Buddhist maya, or go to the opposite extreme and accept the imagined and dreamed realms as of equal validity to the apparently shared world as the Australian Aborigines do with their concept of dreamtime.
Imagination, because of having freedom from external limitations, can often become a source of real pleasure and unnecessary suffering. Consistent with this idea, imagining pleasurable and fearful events is found to engage emotional circuits involved in emotional perception and experience.[17] A person of vivid imagination often suffers acutely from the imagined perils besetting friends, relatives, or even strangers such as celebrities. Also crippling fear can result from taking an imagined painful future too seriously.
Imagination can also produce some symptoms of real illnesses. In some cases, they can seem so "real" that specific physical manifestations occur such as rashes and bruises appearing on the skin, as though imagination had passed into belief or the events imagined were actually in progress. See, for example, psychosomatic illness and folie a deux.
It has also been proposed that the whole of human cognition is based upon imagination. That is, nothing that is perceived is purely observation but all is a morph between sense and imagination.
See also:
Two philosophers for whom imagination is a central concept are John Sallis and Richard Kearney. See in particular:
See also
| Look up imagination in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
| Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: imagination |
|
||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Dansk (Danish)
n. - fantasi, indbildning, forestilling
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
fantasie, verbeel- ding (skracht) tot de verbeelding spreken stof tot nadenken geven
Français (French)
n. - imagination
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Phantasie
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - φαντασία
idioms:
Italiano (Italian)
immaginazione
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - imaginação (f)
idioms:
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - imaginación, fantasía, inventiva
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fantasi, inbillning
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
想像力, 空想, 创造力, 妄想
idioms:
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 想像力, 空想, 創造力, 妄想
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 상상, 마음, 상상의 산물
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 想像, 想像力, 創作力, 心, 想像の所産, 空想
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) تخيل, خيال يستحوذ على مخيلته يسرح بخياله بعيدا
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - דמיון, כוח היצירה של המוח
If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.