What is "Imagination"?

Question

I've just watched a BBC documentary, "Walking with Cavemen". One of its conclusions for how & why humans differ from their ancestors and other animals is "Imagination". So What is it?

Answer 1

Imagination is, in general, the power and process of producing mental images and ideas. The term is technically used in psychology for the process of reviving in the mind percepts of objects formerly given in sense perception. Since this use of the term conflicts with that of ordinary 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. Imagined images are seen with the "mind's eye". One hypothesis for the evolution of human imagination is that it allowed conscious beings to solve problems (and hence increase an individual's fitness) by use of mental simulation.

Answer 2

It's something we have to apply when answering some of the questions on answers. Though not yours because you asked a sensible question.

Unfortunately I cannot find the right waffle to explain what imagination is. Maybe our imagination is drawn from the memories stored in our brains memories from our ancestors. Thus differing from the cavemen whom I presume didn't have the amount of ancestors modern day man has so therefore not as many stored memories. That is not to say that cavemen weren't capable of having imagination and using it to good purpose as they would never have survived and the next step of human evolution would have been thwarted somewhat.

There I said I didn't have the waffle to explain , but I gave it my best shot.

Thank you for an excellent question. I am not sure whether I would have been brave enough to have asked this question. And I hope you are awarded points for the best question todate.

Answer 3

The imagination is the space in the brain where you make models of the world and test out possibilities.
It can be useful, as you imagine how you will do something which you actually need to do and you practise it out and work out the materials you will need to realise the task.
It can be consoling, when you remember past happiness, or enact stories of future joys.
It can be intellectual, as you take in new ideas, and learn to fit them into the idea of the world that is already set up there.
It is the beginning of our actions.
I am not sure it is true that animals don't have it, sometimes it seems to me that an animal does plan out its actions, and that probably needs some form of imagination.
Many animals do have some kind of map of the world in their head, and that might be some kind of imagination.
Certainly, we see our pets dream, and while this is obviously not the same as imagination, it seems to suggest that there is something going on in the brain that involves some kind of interior world which is independant of sensory input, and that they therefore might have the power of imagination.
Of course we cannot know about the interior life of any other animal, but then nor do we of other human beings. Its just that they can tell us.

I would think that what is probably unique to humans is the power to raise images in the imaginations of others by the use of language.

Answer 4

The formation of a mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses.

The mental image so formed.

The ability or tendency to form such images.
The ability to confront and deal with reality by using the creative power of the mind; resourcefulness: handled the problems with great imagination.
A traditional or widely held belief or opinion.

Archaic
An unrealistic idea or notion; a fancy.
A plan or scheme.

Answer 5

Look around you every little thing started with imagination.
All just ideas piled upon idea.
No imagination, no computer, no sliced bread, really NOTHING!
We would all be sleeping out side like cavemen!
Imagination is caring.
A cat, or a dog dont care.
They just lay around the house all day and sleep.
Imagine if they did care, they would be making things to better themselvees and the world.
It would be a strange and odd world.
We look to the sky and see the bird flying, we dont have wings so we imagine a way to obbtain wings.
Every idea is a new imagination.

Answer 6

Simply it is the brains ability to create sensation without sensory input.

Open your eyes and look at a tree. You see a tree. Close your eyes and think of a tree and you brain can construct an image of a tree for your to see. That is imagination.

Imagination isn't limited to sight and can encompass all the senses.

Imagination can be quite complex as in dreams. When sleeping most of the incoming senses are nullified and the the breain interprets resiudual energies in itself to for all sortos of outrageous things. Even daydreaming with eyes open one can imagine images that interupt the incoming flo of visual information to "see".

Interesting to note the hypothesis of your documentary that says only humans hav imagination. One can observe other animals dreaming. Their eyes moving in their sleep, body making motions, and brainwave paterns. I would assert that humans aren't the only ones capable of imagination. Maybe just a different level of imagination.

Answer 7

Well Very Nice Question ..Never Thought of It :D ..
Imagination is Thinking About Something You Want or Someone You Want to Be in Future or Falling in Love With Someone Special ...Its Amazing You Have Ideas and Images and You Sometimes Believe It Will Happen ...
Images , Colours , Thoughts , Ideas , Pictures , Stories All At Once in Your Mind .. Its Kind Off Like Brainstorming ...
Its Imagining Something You Want Or Wish You had !! :)
Thanks For Asking Nice Question

Answer 8

Imagination is the ability to take knowledge and extrapolate it into circumstances that are not limited to the past or the present but also the future. Animals as we understand them can deal in the past and the present, but not conceive of a future event to come. Implicit in this is the idea that you can create solutions that use similar items to what you are familiar with, but not the same as your experience has shown you to work. Visual clues trigger responses to such things as climate change and reproductive cycles, but not anticipatory changes brought on by actions of other creatures or humans. Events such as earthquakes would not imprint on an animals understanding except to respond to the immediate problem.

Answer 9

Imagination is a reality inside the mind
for some its another way to look at what you find
for some its cruel for some its kind
for others its the present in rewind

for me its just another way out
because life hands me a lot of doubt
and being a man i cannot cry or pout
so its the only way to recieve for what i sought

when im alone its the life ill be
imagining my life happy my emotions free
a place i go to swallow life's tea
the only place i can really be me!

(copyrighted by mournyngwolf)

Answer 10

Imagination in my opinion is our ability to dream, our dreams are what leads humans to progress in life , example a child of 4 to 6 years old does not know that he cannot fly they believe that they can do anything until an adult tells him no he can't, it was his imagination that told him to fly , along comes an adult and Say's no and the child imagination as now got limits as to what he can imagine and not, the child(man) that invented the cell phone saw it for the first time on Star trek - when he became an adult he invented the mobile phone because as a child he dreamed of having one just like he saw as a child on Star Trek, he did not say i cannot do that , he done it , do not limit your children instead encourage them to dream because our dreams are tommorrow's Reality. Todays Science fiction is tommorrow Reality.H.G Wells and Jules Verne are good examples most of the novels( Science Fiction) are fact today.!!! I hope that i have given an explanation that is understandable, as what is clear in my head can sometimes be so hard for me to explain to others, an excellent question by the asker!!!