3/09/2017

Today we explored imagination, one of the WOK’s, and the way of knowing for my badge project #4. The discussion I had with Mr. Morrison and one of my group members, Ben, was very intriguing. Tyler and Ahmed, our other group members were gone, because of trips leading up to spring break, but Ben and I discussed Imagination with Mr. Morrison today and it was very interesting. We read the article by Frank Wilczek: “Why science needs imagination and beauty.” This article was very interesting and we ended up talking about it and it seemed very philosophical. I enjoyed today’s discussion a lot.

WOK Paragraph

Question: Can imagination reveal truths that reality hides?

Draft One

Imagination helps a knower understand something they cannot experience. I believe imagination can reveal truths that reality hides, to a great enough extent to be satisfied, because although our experiences are limited to virtually only our senses, we are not able to experience everything the world has to offer us. Imagination is the key to understanding what these false experiences may be like in reality. I state that imagination can reveal truths only enough to satisfy an initial need, because one truly cannot know anything unless they are experiencing it, and after learning about sense perception, that is no longer necessarily even true. Imagination can lead us to thinking about what might be, which is a whole new level and a much greater spectrum than what is.

Final Draft

Imagination is best defined as “the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses.” In other words, imagination helps a knower understand something they cannot experience. I believe imagination can reveal truths that reality hides, to a great enough extent to be satisfied, because although our experiences are limited to virtually only our senses, we are not able to experience everything the world has to offer us. With this in mind, imagination is the key to understanding what these false experiences may be like in reality. I state that imagination can reveal truths only enough to satisfy an initial need, because one truly cannot know anything unless they are experiencing it, and after learning about sense perception, that is no longer necessarily even true. In the BBC article, an example is how physicists don’t even truly know what an atom looks like, since we cannot see it, but we based off the information we know, we assume that it looks like the model we give it today. This assumption would be impossible without the ability to imagine. This is important because imagination is the key to a whole new level of exploration, even though one may not be sure this imagination is truly how the object or idea being imagined is pictured. This imagination can lead us to thinking about what might be, which is a whole new level and a much greater spectrum than what is.

Elective Reading: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131127-secret-to-thinking-like-a-genius

Frank Wilczek, is a scientist that is in love with imagination. This is because he works in the quantum world, and objects this small are merely ideas because they are so small and practically cannot be seen. “The laws we have discovered, especially in the quantum world are so strange you have to play with them in your mind.” The senses cannot perceive, and no way can interpret ideas we cannot see directly with our senses. This shows that imagination is a way of knowing and it is an important one because in this example imagination is used to reveal truths that reality hides. Quantum physicists are not sure if anything they are saying is truly accurate, but their imagination is an accurate enough representation to be able to create and develop theories, and even laws of physics. Laws of physics in the quantum world are all basically imagination, but they are as stated, laws. This means they are true enough to satisfy us, going along with the thesis of my paragraph above. This article is interesting because he states that our questions become endless due to the power of imagination, and this fascinates me.