On Imagination

The etymological progression of "imagination" begins with Latin 'Imago, Imagin, Imaginary", then in French, it was known as "Imaginaro", before in English, it was known and accepted as "imagination". One central thread of this evolutionary aspect of the word imagination is "image". What is the concept of image after all? It was originated from Latin "Imago, Imaginem", in French, "Imagene", before it evolved in English as "Image or Imitate". Image is defined as "piece of statuary; artificial representation that looks like a person or thing". A similar signifying word is "Phantasma" in Greek, "Fantosme" in French, and "Phantom" in English. Which is defined as "illusion or unreality". 

In a way, it can be easily deduced from etymological investigation of imagination that it is a mental apparatus of image making process; which produces fictitious, imaginary, and unreal symbols, so as to imitate something real or concrete fact. Imagination, in that sense, is different from actual feeling, emotion, or desire, which occurs inside mental apparatus. However, often, imagination extrapolates or stretches out some real concrete experiences into the muddy waters from thereon, a fictitious possibility appears to be real. Every person has the unique capability of image-making, which is, as far as known from scientific discoveries, not possible in the rest of animal kingdom. The Image-making process is possible; thanks to the genesis of words and thoughts; imagination is, in fact, cultivated in languages and through the languages. The whole system of education or culture, from a childhood care by family to the system of University, moulds and shapes the thoughts and ego of beings, likewise persona is a juristic creation, which have decisive role in the unique capabilities for the imagination or  imitation of a real concrete experience. Experiencing itself is possible in the background of images. Relationship like friends and foes are also developed in the images through the images, and the sense of expectations is formulated from the relationships in the background of images.

Every person has some image than other about himself or herself as the case may be, and he or she has image about everything exists or does not exist in the world. The society, class, caste, gender, law, corporation, language, all have become a realized possibility; thanks to fictitious capabilities of a human being. A dog cannot be a poet, a tree cannot sing a lullaby, at least we, the rational animals, think so. But humans are capable to live in a fictitious life. It's no longer a possibility. It's actually happening inside us and around the world. The biggest fiction is none other than  language. One and only creature who have all the stakes in language and for language (Georgio Agambem).

Language has no natural basis. It has become possible; thanks to an imaginary social contract; it's nonetheless a fantastic imagination. Nobody ever participated in social contract ever, at least, consciously. There are many systems of knowledge, which have evolved through long usage and custom, including language, logic, and law. Nietzsche once remarked on the proud gesture of humankind regarding their finite amusing knowledge:

"In some remote corner of the universe, poured out and glittering in innumerable solar systems, there once was a star on which clever animals invented knowledge. That was the highest and most mendacious minute of 'world history'—yet only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths the star grew cold, and the clever animals had to die. One might invent such a fable and still not have illustrated sufficiently how wretched, how shadowy and flighty, how aimless and arbitrary, the human intellect appears in nature. There have been eternities when it did not exist; and when it is done for again, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no further mission that would lead beyond human life. It is human, rather, and only its owner and producer gives it such importance, as if the world pivoted around it" (Friedrich Nietzsche, On Truth and Lie in Extra-Moral Sense). 

Knowledge is as imaginary as divine projection of Universe. Human's God, if I assume other other Gods for other animals, is a symbol of infinite projection, in comparison to finite- limited human's existence. Montesquieu rightly remarked once that if a triangle has a God, it will have features like a triangle. Or if the mosquitos imagine about their world, humans would be, undoubtedly, their source of food, energy, joy, misery, and fatigue. 

Life, in philosophical sense, was first imagined by Aristotle in Greek, and soul was invented in the scholastic tradition of Christianity, which could be deciphered in the literatures of St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. The concept of human, animal, God, profane or divine, or social categories, like family, society, law, education, or technology, everything is possibly imagined and created; everything and every relationship have genesis in imagination and through imagination. Every sense of ecstasy, joy, happiness, hope, or every iota of mental pain, suffering, anxiety, or fear is possible; thanks to the art of imagination and its unique abilities of image-making, its capabilities of the projection of time and space, or a sense of temporality and universality. One cannot avoid imagination because thoughts are always already there. One cannot avoid suffering, if happiness or pleasure is hoped for or desired. If one likes to think about other-worldly pleasures, that is equally a fantastic imagination, which has no basis to our senses.

Biological death is real, but a life after death is invented to assuage the anxiety of limited existence. The daily wretchedness of human's life compels to think and to day-dream a glorious future after death or a gloomy possibility in case of sin, for sin and virtue have been invented in worldly-moral affairs to connect it with the punishment and reward afterlife, a symbol of divine punishment. All these projections are possible due to images, imaginary projections, and of course, the apparatus of imagination. I do believe that one can use his/her imagination for art, creativity, scientific or moral progress, or it may be a cause of anxiousness, boredom, meaninglessness. I am not aware if other animals to whom humans are following (Derrida) suffer from mental illnesses? I am also not aware if they feel ashamed because of their pursuit for food or sexuality? The most rational animal, the champion of organized life, has all the shares of mental agony and fear of death. I don't know if other animals have any projection regarding life, death, afterlife, divine or satanic forces? But humans, the sophisticated creature, have all the riches of imaginations and all sense of misfortunes as well. Humans, the intelligent life, have, in fact, reduced all the curiosity and wonders of nature into cold mathematical theorems or codes, whereas the joy of momentary phenomenon has ceased into oblivion. They have invented festivals to forget about their own wretched solitary emotions. They have devised all the sophisticated drinks, drugs, and many tools to keep mind into the realm of perpetual forgetfulness. Only they may claim about professionalism, their detached relationship with hand, mind, and pen. Animals, other than a rational one, seem to have no image of present, past, and future; no image of nature versus Society or no words for civilization versus savagery. We have all too images, some are historically rooted, a few are a part of societal discourse, and of course, every human being is carrying on the burden of images and creating the albums of images, so as to establish the mountainous myths, beyond that, life is awaited in its full blooms and fragrances.