The best way to measure reason and imagination is to compare once childhood dreams and think about the same situation in our adult age.
Imagination is infinite. There are no limits to imagination. Whenever it comes to me, I recall my childhood memories, and it goes on continuously.
Not only for kids but adult’s imaginations are very useful. Especially for poets and writers. Their imagination gives a different level of writing to the readers or audiences. Imagination is the key ingredient of romantic poems. So, it’s obvious that romantic poets use their power of imagination and compose beautiful poems.
A very fine and beautiful example for use of imagination in the poem can be seen in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan”.
It is a romantic poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In this poem by his imagination, he exposes the beauty of nature, followed by a dream palace of Kubla Khan.
Imagined situations sound great, peace on earth, infinite money in the bank, getting enough sleep during exam crunch times, but reason quickly brings you back down to earth, there is nothing as heartbreaking watching reality crushing a small child’s dream. Imagination is the most natural thing for humans to do.
Our imaginations are most active and real when we are young(recall the imaginary worlds that you once immersed yourself in), and as we learn to reason, we lose the imaginary side of ourselves. The reason often inhibits imagination. It shackles our minds to a plane of reality. This is seen in school situations where the creative interpretation of rules and situations is punished due to the reasoning of ‘following the rules’ making school life ‘easier’. Sounds very depressing, but one cannot survive the world without a sense of reason.
Comparing Between Reason And Imagination.
Reason and imagination in the normal way are different or opposite to each other. Our logical and practical world runs on reason even our judicial system believes in evidence. The practical world needs answers to questions and it will appear through reason while imagination gives the ideas and theories.
According to Albert Einstein ” Imagination is more important than knowledge because knowledge is limited but imagination can encircle the whole world.
In the literary world imagination is the key ingredient for writing and composing. Especially for romantic literature. Not only in the field of literature but in the field of science also imagination is very important. As if there was no imagination, many discoveries would not have been made without imagination.
For instance, many people thought that the world was flat and stuck by it. Those who contradicted this statement were believed this according to their imagination. Now people believe that the world is round. They couldn’t prove either of these as no more sailed around the whole world or been to the edge of the world. Imagination leads to the ultimate fact that the whole is spherical.
Once a point is made out of the imagination then the reason is added to make the point make sense. Imagination is a key part of our lives. Many movies are made about the future to make us understand how imagination gives birth to beautiful creations.
Why Reasons are Different From Imagination?
The reason is very different. The reason is for people who want and need answers. In science only reason is used otherwise it would not be considered science but philosophy.
This is one of the great problems that is facing the world of Quantum Mechanics at the moment. The new theory of String, Theory has been announced and it has lead to some argumentation and discussion. You see this theory is almost impossible to prove as the strings themselves are so minuscule that we can not see them under any form of equipment or test in any way.
This theory can be the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. It has been accepted by many scientists even though it cannot be proved. It takes some imagination to come up with this answer and it has hardly any reason behind it. Scientists are turning on their principles and choosing to believe in this theory because it seems as though it could be correct and it makes everything, that makes sense and has a very simple answer.
To form some sort of conclusion I believe that imagination is so much more important than reason, not necessarily within the natural science world but within the human world. Imagination has to lead us as a race to so much more than just finding out things and what they do. Imagination has evolved before us, as a species and has lead to important discoveries throughout the various regions of our planet.
Reason is important, yes, but for me, it is meaningless compared to Imagination.
Conclusion.
Reason and Imagination are normally considered opposites in the scientific world. Many scientists choose to believe in reason instead of imagination as it offers answers while imagination offers ideas and theories. All of this returns to the theme of knowledge.