Imagination in the Process of Discovery

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate ways in which the imagination tends to operate when we are confronted with what is unknown, to show in what circumstances imagination is a help or a hindrance in the process of discovery. In order to illustrate my theme I shall draw on examples from two different fields of knowledge: one is man's discovery of the earth, the other concerns the discovery of his psyche.

Imagination anticipates all our ventures and, whether we desire it or not, it also participates in our recording of events. But what can be discovered at any given time depends also on the general context as Charles Webster reminds us in the introduction to his book, The great instauration (WEBSTER 13). The period (1626-60) of spectacular scientific advance coincided with the economic, political and religious changes of the Puritan Revolution. Webster warns against taking these scientific medical and technological developments out of their intellectual and social context. This context was above all one of religious revolution.

If I therefore compare the imaginings which prevailed during the dawn of geography with some psychological discoveries in our time, I rely on it being agreed that human nature has not changed during our short history nor have our ways of reacting to what is unknown. This being the case I could be justified in looking at some similarities as well as differences which the use of imagination has brought about in two different areas of discovery. Strictly speaking I ought to be talking about explorations, since these become discoveries only after the event, if and when circumstances have been favourable. In addition, what is discovered is not always what the explorers had in mind when they set out. Their equipment, vessels, provisions and instruments look to us woefully inadequate. What sustained the explorers? What sustains us on our different, but often equally uncertain journeys?

Before going further with such parallels based on m