Do you agree that we can't think of something we don't know?

Question

for example; we can think of aliens with five heads made of plutonium, but it's all still in our frame of reference. We know what heads are and plutonium!

Answer 1

Agreed, we can only relate the unknown to the known.

Answer 2

It's relative, like anything else.

A rationalist, by strict definition of the word, believes that we can know things simply by thinking about them.

An empiricist believes that we can only know things by experience.

Most people are a mix of the two, depending on the subject matter.

Regarding people with heads made of Plutonium, I can know something without experiencing it: I know that a head-butting contest would be a disaster for both parties and their entire planet!

Answer 3

We can't think of something completely unfamiliar with our own point of reference but we can receive 'messages' from the collective unconscious that are completely fresh and new to us.

For example, most people who see UFOs see the traditional saucer shape or orb. I saw a UFO that was shaped like a square with lights on each corner and one in the center of the bottom. I'd say it really was a UFO and not imagination.

Answer 4

A writer lives by imagining things he doesn't know. But there are elements of reality which are beyond us now and writing can only hint at them.

Answer 5

"Nobody can jump over his/her own shadow." This is what a Romanian writer said, once, and I happen to agree with him. I also agree with you, because you said the same thing, but using an example.

Answer 6

We have known knowns, that is thing which we know we know and he have known unknowns, things which we know we do not know. However, we also have unknown unknowns, things which we do not know we do not know.

I love that speech. These guys are running the world and that's how they speak. Ha ha ha. We're all doomed.

Answer 7

What we think does exist somewhere and what exist some one thinks. What are all these fiction, starwars, aliens. Hence we do think about those which we don't know.

Answer 8

Thinking of something that we don’t know is the basis of invention. Thinking of something that we don’t know if the mother of imagination. Before we can discover it, know it, invent it, dream it, we must think of it.

Answer 9

Disagree. If that were the case, there would be no new inventions, stories, or geniuses. We'd be stagnant.

Answer 10

maybe.. but we could hallucinate! LOL..