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Imagining

 

 

Definition (George Humphrey)
Definition (John Ziman)
Function (John Dewey)
Related concept : knowledge (W. I. B. Beveridge)
Related concept : knowledge (Eugene Von Frange)

 

 

Definition

[1948] George Humphrey, Directed Thinking, Dood, Mead & Co., New York
“Imagination ... mean[s] the formation of images out of one’s own past experience.” (p. 136)
“Images are mental tools.” “Mental images of all kinds, visual, auditory, movement, word, are abundant in reasoning.” (p. 153)

[1968] John Ziman, Public Knowledge. The social dimension of science, Cambridge University Press
"Imagination - the ability to construct new patterns and combinations of ideas.”
(Chapter 5, p. 79)

 

Function

[1910] John Dewey, How We Think, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, New York, 1991
“The proper function of imagination is vision of realities that cannot be exhibited under existing conditions of sense-perception. Clear insight into the remote, the absent, the obscure is its aim.”
“Imagination supplements and deepens observation; only when it turns into the fanciful does it become a substitute for observation and lose logical force.” (Chapter 16, p. 224)

 

Related Concept : Knowledge

[1957, Third edition] W. I. B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation, Random House, New York
“Other things being equal, the greater our store of knowledge, the more likely it is that significant combination will be thrown up. Furthermore, original combinations are more likely to come into being if there is available a breadth of knowledge extending unto related or even distant branches of knowledge.” (Chapter 5, p. 75)

[1959] Eugene Von Frange, Professional Creativity, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
“Since knowledge is the food on which our imagination thrives, its accumulation, classification, and simplification is a never-ending, tremendously important challenge.” (Chapter 5, p. 61)

 

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