WOK: Imagination

From The IB TOK Booklet:

What is the role of imagination in producing knowledge about a real world? Can imagination reveal truths that reality hides? What is the role of the imagination in understanding others? 

Imagination is often identified in a narrow sense as the capacity to form a mental representation of something without the stimulus of sense experience. Traditionally imagination has been associated with imagery and making a mental image of something. However, more recently interest in the imagination has also focused on exploring propositional imagining, or “imagining that”. The importance and power of the imagination is highlighted by a number of medical conditions which impact upon it, for example, conditions which can impair imagination such as severe autism, or conditions which can cause delusions such as severe schizophrenia. 

Imagination is sometimes viewed in a broader way as being associated with creativity, problem-solving and originality. Here it might be the making of connections between otherwise disparate ideas in order to solve problems. This might be useful in model making or theory creation in the sciences and solving structural problems in the arts. Imagination is, however, also sometimes distrusted, in part because it is regarded as something that is derived in the mind of the individual and therefore subjective. Imagining is also sometimes associated with counterfactual reasoning; imagining “what would happen if ...”, or “what would have happened if ...”. 

Imagination is also sometimes associated with possibility, in that it can be argued that only things which are possible can be imagined. In this way, the imagination is seen by some to provide evidence of what is and is not possible. In daily life, imagination has a particularly prominent role in entertainment, for example, fictional films or television programmes. However, it can be argued that imagination also plays a deeper role, for example, in moral education, developing empathy, or providing opportunity for self-expression and an increased understanding of the self. 

Activity

Try the following, really, try it!

‘Think of your favourite piece of music. Now imagine dragging your fingers across a chalkboard. Now imagine plunging your hand into a bucket of sand and feeling the grains crunch between your fingers. And now taste the difference between lemon and lime – which is more sour? There was no sand; there was no lemon. And yet, in response to a set of completely imaginary events, your mind produced very real physical reactions.’

This quote from author Olivia Fox Cabane points out the power of the human imagination. What is being described here is the what we traditionally call imagination: the ability to form a mental representation of a sense experience without the normal stimulus. There is another form of imagination, however. Propositional imagining: is the idea of ‘imagining that’ things were different than they are, for example that the cold war had never ended.

You should always link your ToK essays back to real life. One way that you can do this when discussing imagination is to talk about medical conditions that might affect the imagination. Thinking about people with conditions such as severe autism can give an insight into what a lack of imagination might mean to a person. Other conditions, such as schizophrenia can give some insight into what delusions and extreme examples of imagination can lead to.

If you want to talk about imagination in your work, you would do well to contrast the way imagination has been treated in the past. Imagination is often respected as a part of creativity, problem solving and originality. However, imagination is also distrusted since it is highly subjective. Thinking about the way people have viewed imagination in the past can really show you know how to reflect on the Ways of Knowing in your work.