Imagination as a Fifth Way of Knowing.

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The traditional TOK diagram indicates four ways of knowing. Propose the inclusion of a fifth way of knowing selected from intuition, memory or imagination, and explore the knowledge issues it may raise in two areas of knowledge.

In this quest of knowledge man has to rely on the four conventional ways of knowing: reason, emotion, perception and language. These ways of knowing are highly commendable as it is with their help alone that we are able to find solution to every problem, question and riddle. But have they really done so? Can they provide one with the answer to the question: what happens when one dies? Is this the end or a rebirth? I think the power of our imagination and our beliefs have more to do than the ways of knowing while we are contemplating such questions. On a personal note, I don’t think that knowledge, which is endless and immeasurable, is confined to these ways of knowing. I use my imagination to think if there can be any knowledge, which can be attained without the support of these ways of knowledge.

We have to use the power of our imagination at every turn and corner. Before going to a new place or meeting a person for the first time, we use our imagination to think what kind of a place or a person we will accost. I cannot say about others but whenever I talk to a person first on the phone, I make his or her image in my mind. We fill colors and contours in everything unseen and unmet with the power of our imagination. Don’t we? Have you not heard of first impressions? No human being can deny the power of his imagination while living in this vast world where we don’t know what is going to happen the next moment. Einstein once said, “” His claim gives rise to a question if imagination can be used as a fifth way of knowing? This essay will discuss the role of imagination at large in our search for knowledge with respect to the areas of knowledge such as natural science and literature.

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I consider God as the first scientist and the first architect. Could He have made this beautiful world, swarming with beautiful life and diverse colors, without his imagination? I hope not. Every model, every object that we wish to create has to pass through the imaginative process in our brain. The words of Michelangelo resound in my ears as I write this essay,” ” And no wonder that I can feel him sculpting his beautiful carving through my power of imagination. White marble, a chisel, the sculptor, Italy, the renaissance and thousands of other things come to me within the ...

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