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language, some psychologists have preferred to describe this process as " imaging ". or " imagery " or to speak of it as " reproductive " as opposed to " productive " or " constructive " imagination (see See also:

IMAGE (Lat. imago, perhaps from the same root as imitari, copy, imitate)

IMAGE and PSYCHOLOGY). The See also:

COMMON

common use of the term is for the process of forming in the mind new images which have not been previously experienced, or at least only partially or in different combinations. Thus the -image of a centaur is the result of combining the common percepts of See also:

man and See also:

HORSE (a word common to Teutonic languages in such forms as hors, hros, ros; cf. the Ger. ross)

horse: See also:

FAIRY (Fr. fee, faerie; Prov. facia; Sp. hada; Ital. fata; med. Lat. fatare, to enchant, from Lat. fatum, fate, destiny)

fairy tales and fiction generally are the result of this process of See also:

COMBINATION (Lat. combinare, to combine)

combination. Imagination in this sense, not being limited to the acquisition of exact knowledge by the requirements of See also:

PRACTICAL

practical See also:

NECESSITY (Lat. necessitas)

necessity, is up to a certain point See also:

FREE

free from See also:

OBJECTIVE, or OBJECT GLASS

objective restraints. In various See also:

SPHERES, MUSIC OF THE

spheres, however, even imagination is in practice limited: thus a man whose imaginations do violence to the elementary See also:

LAWS

laws of thought, or to the necessary principles of practical possibility, or to the reasonable probabilities of a given See also:

case is regarded as insane. The same limitations beset imagination in the See also:

field of scientific See also:

HYPOTHESIS (from Gr. inrorcOivat, to put under; cf. Lat. suppositio, from sub-ponere)

hypothesis. 1 See also:

Tyler, See also:

PRIM, JUAN, MARQUIS DE LOS CASTILLEJOS, COUNT DE REDS (1814-187o)

Prim. Culture, ii. 178. Progress in scientific See also:

RESEARCH (O. Fr. recerche, from recercher, re- and cercer, mod. chercher, to search; Late Lat. circare, to go round in a circle, to explore)

research is due largely to provisional explanations which are constructed by imagination, but such hypotheses must be framed in relation to previously ascertained facts and in accordance with the principles of the particular See also:

SCIENCE (Lat. scientia, from scire; to learn, know)

science.

In spite, however, of these broad practical considerations, imagination differs fundamentally from belief in that the latter involves " objective See also:

CONTROL (Fr. contrdle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of " control " in this, its literal, meaning)

control of subjective activity " (Stout). The See also:

PLAY

play of imagination, apart from the obvious limitations (e.g. of avoiding explicit self-See also:

CONTRADICTION, PRINCIPLE OF (principium contradictionis)

contradiction), is conditioned only by the general trend of the mind at a given moment. Belief, on the other See also:

hand, is immediately related to practical activity: it is perfectly possible to imagine myself a millionaire, but unless I believe it I do not, therefore, See also:

ACT (Lat. actus, actum)

act as such. Belief always endeavours to conform to objective conditions; though it is from one point of view subjective it is also objectively conditioned, whereas imagination as such is specifically free. The dividing See also:

LINE

line between imagination and belief varies widely in different stages of mental development. Thus a See also:

savage who is See also:

ill frames an ideal reconstruction of the causes of his illness, and attributes it to the hostile magic of an enemy. In See also:

IGNORANCE (Lat. ignorantia, from ignorare, not to know); want of knowledge, a state of mind which in law has important consequences. A well-known legal maxim runs: ignorantia juris non excusat ("ignorance of the law does not excuse")

ignorance of See also:

PATHOLOGY (from Gr. raBos, suffering)

pathology he is satisfied with this explanation, and actually believes in it, whereas such a hypothesis in the mind of civilized man would be treated as a pure effort of imagination, or even as a See also:

HALLUCINATION (from Lat. alucinari or allucinari, to wander in mind, Gr. a.)^i resty or hXvecv, from an, wandering)

hallucination. It follows that the distinction between imagination and belief depends in practice on knowledge, social environment, training and the like. Although, however, the See also:

ABSENCE (Lat. absentia)

absence of objective See also:

RESTRAINT (from " to restrain," Lat. restringere, to hold back, prevent)

restraint, i.e. a certain unreality, is characteristic of imagination, none the less it has See also:

GREAT

great practical importance as a purely ideational activity. Its very freedom from objective See also:

LIMITATION, STATUTES OF

limitation makes it a source of See also:

PLEASURE (through Fr. plaisir from Lat. placere, to please; Gr. rlbovii)

pleasure and See also:

pain. A See also:

PERSON, OFFENCES AGAINST THE

person of vivid imagination suffers acutely from the imagination of perils besetting a friend. In fact in some cases the ideal construction is so " real " that specific See also:

PHYSICAL

physical manifestations occur, as though imagination had passed into belief or the events imagined were actually in progress.

End of Article: IMAGINATION

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