Is it possible to imagine something you haven't seen before? Is it possible to imagine something new that is not put together by pieces you already know, or can we only combine the existing things?
2006-06-27 06:14:29 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Social Science ➔ Psychology
No, I don't mean déja vu but artistic creation. Can we create something totally new?
As for inventions, the problem is that they are made of existing things. For example, a light bulb is made of glass, wolfram... etc.
2006-06-27 06:30:51 · update #1
No, you can't imagine something entirely new.
Everything you imagine is merely a reassembly of things you have previously observed or experienced.
Some people (the very artistic) are much more creative and can assemble pieces that others would not even see as possibly connected. But they are still working with what they have seen, observed, and experienced.
We simply cannot imagine something without a frame of reference.
(It's like "thinking" -- can I have conscious thought if I have no visual images in my head or no language with which to speak? My consciousness has been primed by pre-existing things; and the more I observe and experience, the larger my ability to think grows...)
In any case, it was a large revelation for me to realize this. I spent most of my life feeling that I always had to be original or new. Eventually I realized that there is nothing new under the sun -- all the great themes had already been covered.
There is only the sharing of my perception of it, which is unique to me. (And that's simply the re-packaging of things that already exist.)
2006-06-27 08:42:08 · answer #1 · answered by Jennywocky 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
I am assuming you are referring to deja vu. I myself have had this happen sometimes a year or two before it actually occurred. I was living in one state, and dreamed about an event that later unfolded in an entirely different state, in a job that I did not have when I dreamed it. Yet the setting was very real and in color. It was very specific even down to the mood I was in at the time and the exact movement I was going through when I realized what had happened.
Therefore, I would say sometimes the unforeseen can be imagined, and can come true.
I hope this helps.
2006-06-27 13:21:15 · answer #2 · answered by solpredator 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Our imagination is boundless. BTW, inventions are things that have never been seen before, as are at least some of the individual elements of the invention. So, you actually answered you own question.
2006-06-27 13:22:44 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that creativity allows us to take experiences from the world and people around us and combine them into a form that is completely fresh and different.
But that experience has to come from somewhere. Even a sci-fi writer's image of an alien probably comes from expereiences (consciously or unconsciously) collected from things he or she has learned.
2006-06-27 13:38:24 · answer #4 · answered by spacejohn77 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That can be a posibility, but many creations and inventions are made of previously created objects.
2006-06-27 13:32:34 · answer #5 · answered by boricua_chick_21 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
though, im not a psychatrist but i know it is possible...it happens to me too....even s/times i feel i have already experienced the things happenin in my life in present though, i have never experienced dat.
2006-06-27 13:24:22 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
its called imagination
2006-06-27 15:30:17 · answer #7 · answered by Z 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋