What is the Imagination

John Locke once claimed that there is nothing in the mind that was not first derived from experience. The mind, according to Locke, is a blank slate upon which experience is written. Like most philosophical observations, this may be true or untrue depending upon how you interpret it. I can picture a unicorn in my mind even though I have never actually experienced one. So, it seems this claim might not be true. On the other hand, one might argue that the elements from which I construct a unicorn in my mind are derived from experience. I have seen horses and I have seen horns. So, the unicorn is merely a reassembly of things I have experienced. And in that case, the claim might be true.

The problem is that the unicorn is a product of my imagination and we do not fully understand, nor appreciate the role or importance of the imagination. But, before we go any further, I should probably define what I mean by 'imagination'. Imagination is the capability to form images in your mind that are not directly received from experience. It is, as far as I know, a uniquely human capability. We cannot know this for sure because we cannot experience the consciousness of other species. But, it seems a pretty safe bet for reasons we will discuss later.

One might argue that the unicorn, as a product of the imagination, is 'not real'; thus relegating the products of the imagination to some inferior status. This is comforting because it makes products of the imagination seem less important some how and, in doing so, makes the problem of understanding the imagination a little less important. However, I would offer the following challenge. Picture anything in your mind - a friend, a pet, your car, the house across the street, anything. Now is that picture in your mind 100% faithful to the thing you are picturing? If it is not, then it is, to some degree, a product of the imagination.

Pushing this idea a little further, anything we experience in our minds is a product of our imagination. Since our concepts of reality are largely in our minds, this means that reality is a product of our imaginations. Well, clearly we are going to get into big trouble if we simply try to dismiss the imagination as unimportant. So, let us accept, for the sake of argument, that the imagination is important and that it plays a crucial role, of some kind, in human cognition. Next time we will look at some of the reasons why the imagination is important and why knowledge and rationality would not be possible without it.