The Romantic Imagination In Action
...ideologies and philosophies throughout history. It would seem to be the one main characteristic which separates humans homo-sapiens, from all other species in the world. Imagination', seems to be the source and foundation of human evolution, and the founder of humans as the master species.
Technically speaking imagination' is in general, the power or process of producing mental images and ideas. The term is technically used in psychology for the process of reviving mind percepts of objects formerly given in sense perception.
Although this explanation, reveals that it is basically the recollection of images of previously perceived objects, the term imagination' is mainly used for the process of forming new images in our mind, which have not been previously experienced, or at least the formation of something new, by using a combination of previous experiences.
Thus, it is this ability to form these new ideas, images and thoughts which have raised such interest, and theory in the understanding of the imagination.
As stated earlier, the concept of imagination has been a topic of discussion, throughout history and has certainly had a distinctive and pivotal place among the Romantics.
Romanticism which originated in Western Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries, was an intellectual movement which followed the Enlightenment. This period emphasized the self, creativity, imagination and the value of art. It was a movement that strongly emphasized emotion. It also legitimized individual imagination' as a major authority. Which in turn gave rise to free expression' in art.
With such an emphasis on feelings and imagination many thinkers of this period introduced philosophies and theologies of their own on this topic. Richard Kearney in The Wake of the Imagination, explores the various concepts of imagining from the classical to the...
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