In order to form an idea of an unknown situation our imagination borrows elements that are already familiar and for that reason does not form any idea of it.
Marcel Proust – À la recherche du temps perdu
Proust was an extraordinary chap. He wrote an absolutely enormous tome of a novel, but within that vast mountain range of words he scattered some of the most succinct insights one could ever wish for.
Suppose we concoct a commonplace example of the above quote. Imagine a whale swimming along just beneath the surface of the sea minding its own business. Doesn’t matter which kind, any whale will do but let us imagine a whacking great big one, an entirely whale-like whale.
Imagine our whale cruising sedately along as they do – then suddenly and with unexpected grace it takes to the air like some monstrous bird. One minute it is swimming in the ocean like any other well-behaved aquatic mammal but the next minute finds it swimming through the air fifty feet above the waves as if the air has become its natural element.
The ocean is so last year my dear.
Impossible of course, but we can imagine it. At least I can and I trust I’m not alone in such a trivial accomplishment. Yet the image of a flying whale doesn’t even make sense because it would violate a number of scientific laws. Yet even though it doesn’t make sense we can imagine it. We can imagine lots of things which don’t make sense, it’s one of the things we do rather well. It can be entertaining but there are drawbacks.
Imagine a leader of a major political party, a long time member of the legislature with no government experience because this person has always lurked on the periphery, disdaining the various responsibilities which come with governing and making decisions. Imagine this political leader is past the normal retirement age so learning the complexities of government are likely to be substantially more difficult than in earlier days.
Now imagine a situation where this same political leader has wandered into a situation where there in a possibility of becoming Prime Minister. Is he or she likely to be successful? We can easily imagine success just as we can imagine the flying whale, but is our imaginary PM any more capable of flying in a Prime Ministerial sense? For most or even all of us the answer depends largely on our powers of imagination.
Perhaps this is a key point. Imagination is easy – it arises from the least energy principle and isn’t necessarily something we should admire. In order to form an idea of an unknown situation our imagination borrows elements that are already familiar and for that reason does not form any idea of it. As Proust knew and highlighted so neatly, those borrowed elements are borrowed because they are already familiar, but not necessarily applicable.
It’s a problem but how do we find a solution? Do we begin by imagining one?
Source:
http://akhaart.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-flying-whale.html
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