Necessity is said to be the mother of invention. Each invention also leads to the creation of new knowledge. This is how knowledge is created to satisfy the need of human beings. How does man’s need or desire become knowledge?

The answer lies in the human being’s ability to imagine what is beyond sensual perception.

It is through human imagination that all knowledge has been created. Knowledge can be represented in any form, such as words, pictures, diagrams, or audiovisual media. Knowledge of knowledge re-triggers imagination as needs continue to evolve, again producing new knowledge.

What is knowledge without imagination?

Knowledge is meaningless without imagination. Imagine reading the scriptures before a dog. It surely cannot have any effect on the dog. Imagine giving a book written in English to a person who does not know English. It is useless for him, since he cannot understand anything about him. Even images that are free of the language barrier only have an effect if they can trigger the person’s imagination. The image of the most beautiful women in the world on an animal would have no effect, just as the most important diagrams in physics are useless for a man of art.

How can we be so sure of answering the above questions even without reading the scriptures to a dog and gauging his reaction?

The answer is again “imagination”.

We seem to know the answers to most questions not by reading books or by experience, but purely by imagination.

What we consider knowledge is nothing more than imagination that is fired in the mind of the knower of knowledge. Knowledge that does not trigger the imagination is meaningless. Even words like love, God, intelligence are nothing more than knowledge that triggers the imagination of something in us. These imaginations may be different for each person, but they all have some common imagination traits.

Each knowledge is nothing more than a word that carries a lot of imagination. For example, when we say “The Theory of Relativity”, it does trigger in us the whole theory of relativity (if we have understood it) that can be explained in many pages. If someone knows the theory of relativity, these words have no imagination or meaning. If you say the word, like Bill Clinton, “it means a person with so many attributes. You can spend your entire life explaining what it means to be God, Love, or Bill Clinton, including aspects that you create from your own imagination that are still unknown to you. the world.

Therefore, the imagination is the source of all knowledge, as Einstein has said:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Because knowledge is limited to everything that we now know and understand, while imagination encompasses the entire world, and everything that will have to be known and understood”

Scientific knowledge and imagination

Scientific knowledge is often considered factual and free from imagination. However, it does not appear to be true. Consider the theory of the atom. The Bohr model of the atom states that each atom consists of a positively charged nucleus that has protons and neutrons that are surrounded by negatively charged electrons. So when we think of the atom, our mind imagines the image of the atom as all the planets that revolve around the sun. However, there is some information about the atom that is not yet known. For example, how the positive proton came together to form a nucleus overcoming the repulsive force faced by the same charges. From where the neutron was born and embedded in the nucleus. Where the electrons came from and started spinning around the nucleus. These are inexplicable facts of atomic theory, as they are beyond human perception at the moment.

Let us consider one of the first theories of physics viz. Gravity discovered by Newton. We know that all material bodies experience a force of attraction towards each other. We have accurately measured the quantum of this force and its relationship to mass and distance. However, we don’t know how this force works? Scientists previously believed that there was something called a gravitational wave that is present between masses, although such a wave was never found. Einstein, using his general theory of relativity, explained that the result of the acceleration of the mass is the same as the gravitational force. It means that if you are sitting in a confined space like an elevator, it is impossible for you to establish whether the force you experience is due to the gravitational pull of a mass or due to the acceleration of the elevator. When Einstein gave this theory of the space-time continuum, it was not easily accepted as other people could not imagine what Einstein envisioned when doing the theory of relativity. Hence his theory has gone unnoticed for more than 15 years. Many of these theories die a natural death because people cannot imagine the content of these theories.

Similar is the case for other commonly observed forces that exist between electrical charges and magnetic substances. All waves of electric and magnetic charges are imaginary but useful for understanding the effect of charge or magnetism.

With greater imagination, you can easily conclude that even if gravity waves, electric charges, and magnetism are presumed to exist, it still cannot explain how the waves cause attraction or repulsion. This aspect is still beyond the imagination of the human being, therefore it is outside the scope of scientific knowledge.

Now consider the Big Bang theory. It explains many things that are known about the universe, except that it is impossible to know what existed before the Big Bang. There must be something that existed before the Big Bang, but no theory is created because it is beyond the imagination of the human mind.

John Dewey summarized the role of imagination in scientific inventions in the book “The Search for Certainty” in the following words.

Every great advance in science has grown out of a new boldness of the imagination.

Thus, knowledge stops where human imagination stops. However, in all ages, people are born who dare to think beyond the obvious and discover new insights into the treasure of Nature and God.

Imagination invades humanity

Imagination is the ability of man to form mental images, or the ability to spontaneously generate images within the mind itself. However, imagination is not voluntary, as it happens automatically if you want it to. Furthermore, the imagination is not individualistic, but consists of many common characteristics. There seems to be a common thread of imagination that is present in all human beings from birth. Innate imagination doesn’t seem to have changed much for thousands of years.

An artist knows the truth of this omnipresent imagination that forms the core of the human personality. Therefore, when you make an art using your imagination, you really capture the imagination of all mankind in it. A good poet or writer writes a poem or fiction using his imagination, but its creation triggers the same kinds of imagination in a large number of people. Thus, people understand the knowledge and emotion of the author through the words of literature or the image of the arts.

Imagination is also at the center of man’s ability to become a leader. A leader through his imagination captures the imagination of the masses and transfers his imagination into his mind. Therefore, a good leader is one who makes his imagination like the imagination of the people. Leaders’ success stories create knowledge of management and politics. Knowledge is simply the visible tool that imaginative people use to transfer their understanding to other people.

No human relationship is possible without imagination. We all seem to know other people’s thoughts from our imaginations. The difference between a successful relationship and a failed one is the partners’ ability to have accurate knowledge of the other person’s mind from their imagination. A man without the right imagination is doomed both in his personal and professional life, even if he knows all the theories in the world, because even the application of theories needs imagination.

The imagination seems to have many layers. The core of the imagination appears to be eternal like the soul of the person, while the surface of the imagination can alter with time and place. It is for this reason that the knowledge contained in the scriptures and the classics still fills the imagination of the people and remains useful knowledge for the people.

Imagination: the means and the end of knowledge

Imagination is behind all the creations in the world. Blaise Pascal has wisely said: “The imagination has everything; it creates beauty, justice and happiness, which are everything in this world.”

Knowledge, which is the ability of the person to know something, arises from the imagination of the person. Therefore, it is correct to say that the imagination is the mother of knowledge. Imagination is like God omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and the source of everything we can do. Imagination is thus the manifestation of God in the human brain, as a famous poet Emily Dickinson said in her poem.

The brain is wider than the sky

To put them next to each other,

The one that the other will contain

With ease and you by your side.

The brain is deeper than the sea

To hold them from blue to blue

The one that the other will absorb

Like they do Sponges Buckets.

The brain is just the weight of God

To weigh them pound for pound,

And they will differ if they do

As a syllable of sound.