THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE ESSAY

Imagination is more important that knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. (Albert Einstein) Do you agree? By: Sharat Ramamani

The everlasting desire to quench our thirst for knowledge is only human nature, and what exists in todays day and age is a product of the fulfilment of this longing to know. What we humans perceive with our five senses, induce with reasoning, and the other ways of knowing, all helps to paint a vivid mosaic of our world, with each tesserae symbolizing an area of knowledge. What if this mosaic is not enough to curb the pangs and frustration of the absence of absolute knowledge? Furthermore, how do we obtain the pieces of this mosaic, and ultimately fit them together so as to mold to our idea of reality? This is where imagination plays a role. Imagination is the ability to create concepts, ideas or images that are not perceived by the senses, but solely in the mind. As far as Albert Einsteins statement goes, I do agree. I agree that imagination is more important than knowledge, and that knowledge is confined at any given moment whilst imagination has no limits and continues to explore every horizon applicable. The ability of humans to advance as a species is accredited to imagination. Humans have, over time, imagined a reality through the creation of concepts, and the reality we live in today is the embodiment of these ideas. The concepts created by imagination are, however, partially dependent on the knowledge of the imaginer. History has proven time and time again that those who have a great wealth of knowledge can consequently produce concepts of value that help to further human society. Plato, Newton and Einstein were all scientists and mathematicians, but they were thinkers first. They used the knowledge at their service to expand on the world around them, but this process of expanding was attributed to the concepts they created and improved on through imagination. When Sir Isaac Newton first saw that fateful apple fall and concluded that the force that pulled the apple down was the same as the force that keeps the moon in orbit, he did so with prior knowledge. Newton knew that the moon had a pattern of orbiting the Earth and he also had knowledge of the distance of the moon from the Earth, and the relative masses of both as well. Although Newton was aware of these physical precepts, it was imagination that established gravity as a pulling force, and with this he induced that the force of gravity is proportional to the product of 2 objects masses, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two objects (P.Stern March 24,2006). Picture a long set of floating stairs, with pillars supporting some of the first few steps and a door at the top of the stairs. Each stair represents a fragment of certain knowledge, with the pillars symbolizing the understanding of this knowledge through imagination, and the door representing absolute knowledge and undisputable truth. A stair cannot be stepped on without a pillar to support it, just as knowledge cannot be attained without grounds to justify that knowledge claim- deriving from imagination. To support the claim that the apple falls to the ground, Newton imagined a pulling force that attracts any object of mass towards the Earth, and used this theory to justify not only the fall of the apple, but the orbit of the moon. It can be stated now that imagination can provide understanding to knowledge. However, one might say that imagined concepts must be true in order to provide support for certain knowledge, so therefore it is impossible to have certain knowledge. This is an implication of imagination. This counterclaim is correct in some aspects but incorrect in others. It is not impossible to have certain knowledge, but it is difficult to prove that imagined concepts are true. This is why imagined concepts must be tested under any possible circumstance or situation for it to have the utmost extent of truth to it. Within the natural sciences, hypotheses and theories are constructed using prior knowledge and imagination, and are rigorously tested through the scientific method to prove their validity. Although they can never be 100% metaphysically true, if they withstand the tests of time and show repeated patters in any situation, it is

generally accepted as knowledge. Mathematics as an area of knowledge is similar, as certain mathematical identities can be formed through the use of certain-knowledge-based mathematical functions, but the proofs of these identities require the creative processes of imagination. Although imagination is used to derive a process in which the identity is proven, the completed proof is certain knowledge, as deductive reasoning is used in the creative process of solving the identity. With all of this in mind, imagination is more important that knowledge as it can be used to create accepted knowledge and assist in the understanding of certain knowledge, aiding us in the quest of absolute truth. A common argument acknowledging knowledge as superior to imagination refers to the idea that without knowledge, nothing can be imagined, as there is no real material for the creative mind to process, and thus nothing can come out of pure thought without knowledgeable basis. I do not agree with this viewpoint, because I view imagination and knowledge a different way. When we attain information and we justify it as true belief, that fragment of knowledge is at a plateau. This plateau represents stagnancy in the development of ideas, and absolute truth is a network of plateaus connected together by reason and understanding, supplied by imagination. Imagination, developed from sensory perception and reasoning, widens the spectrum of knowledge and provides more room for the expansion of this network. There are, however, implications to imagination and knowledge with reference to the network model. There may be different imagined concepts used to support the understanding of the same knowledge claim. For example, ever since I took Gr. 11 IB Chemistry in September, I have learned that the most widely used model of the atom was the Bohr-Rutherford model. Since the atom is a universally known and accepted concept, for the sake of this essay, I will assume it is knowledge. I even wrote my final exam based on Bohr-Rutherfords model of the atom, so I was shocked when one week after my final exam, my chemistry teacher told the class that it was not accurate enough to wholly account for all elements, as there were too many exceptions in the model. I then started learning about the quantum model of an atom. Both models supported the evidence and assisted in the understanding of an atom, but one was seemingly more accurate than the other. This is where subjectivity arises and implications can occur. How can one judge the accuracy of a theory when there is so much ambiguity in the knowledge claim the theory is trying to support? This may seem like a crossroads where only one model can be accepted and the other is rejected, but that is not true. The beauty of imagination is that several imagined concepts can come together to help and develop an understanding for a knowledge claim. The quantum model did, in fact, adopt several key ideas in the Bohr-Rutherford model and produced a theory that, thus far, has fit the known atom and all its elements superbly. Knowledge in this case is limiting, as all we assume to know is that atoms exist, but it is these imagined concepts that give rise to new frontiers in chemistry, and widen the horizon of current knowledge. In conclusion, imagination is more important than knowledge, as it is used in the understanding and development of certain knowledge, and many imagined concepts can be combined to fortify knowledge claims even further. I do agree with Einsteins statement. Imagination knows no bounds, as it is a conscious creative process that only occurs in the mind, whilst knowledge must be true, justified belief that is limited to all we now know and understand.

Bibliography P.Stern, David. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, "Newton's theory of "Universal Gravitation"." Last modified March 24,2006. Accessed June 5, 2012. http://wwwistp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sgravity.htm.