Lost Knowledge of the Imagination

1. Rationalism's Rise Diminishes Imagination's Role

In the early seventeenth century, a new way of knowing and understanding ourselves and the world we live in appeared in the West and quickly rose to prominence.

The shift in knowing. The 17th century marked a turning point with the rise of rationalism and science, overshadowing other forms of knowledge, particularly the imagination. This new approach emphasized objective, measurable truths, leading to a decline in the appreciation and understanding of intuitive, imaginative insights. This shift wasn't merely an addition to existing knowledge but a radical break from the past.

Roots in Axial Age. The origins of rationalism can be traced back to Greek philosophy and the Axial Age, where thinkers sought to understand the world through reason and logic. However, the emphasis on empirical observation and mathematical precision in the 17th century created a distinct departure from earlier, more holistic approaches to knowledge. This new mode of knowing prioritized quantity over quality, leading to a world increasingly defined by measurement and calculation.

Consequences of the shift. The dominance of rationalism has led to a devaluation of imagination, intuition, and other non-rational ways of knowing. This has had a profound impact on our understanding of ourselves and the world, leading to a sense of alienation and a loss of meaning. The challenge now is to find a way to integrate these different modes of knowing to achieve a more complete and balanced understanding of reality.

2. Science's Mastery Comes at a Cost

The emptying of the ‘inside’ of the world – and increasingly ourselves – that was necessary in order for the new way of knowing to take root, has not been an unalloyed success.

Price of progress. While science has brought undeniable advancements, its focus on quantifying and mastering the natural world has come at a significant cost. Environmental crises, social problems, and a sense of existential emptiness are all consequences of this one-sided approach. The pursuit of objective knowledge has led to a neglect of subjective experience and inner meaning.

Shadow side of mastery. The mastery over the natural world achieved through science has created a shadow side, including global warming, urbanization, and industrialization. These challenges highlight the need for a more responsible and ethical approach to scientific progress, one that considers the long-term consequences of our actions. The success of science in disabusing us of any idea that we are in any way necessary, important, or essential to the universe is perhaps best expressed in a remark by the respected astrophysicist Steven Weinberg.

Quantification of existence. The quantification of human existence, with disciplines once considered part of the ‘humanities’ now adopting the effective methods of the new way of knowing, has further contributed to this sense of alienation. The challenge is to find a way to balance the benefits of scientific progress with the need for meaning, purpose, and connection in our lives.

3. Intuition Complements Reason

Pascal was admirably equipped to follow mathematical reasoning, but he knew of other reasoning too; as he famously wrote, ‘the heart has its reasons that reason does not know’.

Two modes of knowing. Pascal distinguished between the "spirit of geometry" (reason) and the "spirit of finesse" (intuition), highlighting the importance of both in understanding the world. While reason relies on logic and analysis, intuition provides a more holistic and immediate grasp of reality. These two modes of knowing are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary.

Tacit and explicit knowledge. Polanyi differentiated between tacit and explicit knowing, where explicit knowing is the kind we can relate step-by-step, as in a scientific experiment or a mathematical equation, while tacit knowing is implicit and cannot be stated clearly in the same way. Tacit knowing is the kind of knowing of which, as Polanyi says, ‘we can know more than we can tell’. You can spell out, step-by-step, the process of solving a quadratic equation; that is explicit knowledge, and we are subject to it throughout our school years.

Right brain/left brain. McGilchrist argues that the right brain sees the world as a whole, as a given totality, a living presence, much as we see another person, while the left brain’s business is to ‘unpack’ what the right brain ‘presences’, to ‘spell it out’, as it were, to focus on the individual trees that make up the forest given to it by the right brain – and eventually to focus on the individual leaves of a given tree. The challenge is to find a way to integrate these two modes of knowing, allowing intuition to inform reason and reason to refine intuition.

4. Lost Participation: From Inner Connection to Outer Object

There must have been a kind of participation between perceiver and perceived, between man and nature.

Original participation. Barfield argues that early humans experienced a direct, participatory connection with the world, blurring the lines between inner and outer reality. This "original participation" involved a sense of unity with nature, where the self was not separate from its surroundings. This is a world in which the strict separation of inside and outside, subjective and objective, living and dead, fact and imagination that we experience was not the case.

Loss of connection. Over time, this participatory consciousness diminished, leading to a separation between the self and the world. This separation has resulted in a sense of alienation and a loss of meaning, as the world is now seen as an external object rather than an extension of ourselves. The outer, phenomenal world, with which at some unconscious source we are joined, has become for us a completely alien ‘other’.

Regaining participation. Barfield suggests that we can regain a sense of participation through the creative imagination, which allows us to see the world in a new light. By engaging with art, poetry, and other forms of creative expression, we can reconnect with the inner meaning of things and experience a sense of unity with the world around us. This produces an ‘expansion’ of meaning rather than its ‘contraction,’ which is the result of the drift into a literal way of seeing the world.

5. Language Reveals Evolving Consciousness

Asking about the origin of language is like asking about the origin of origin.

Metaphorical origins. Barfield's study of language reveals that words for abstract concepts often have concrete, metaphorical origins. This suggests that early humans perceived the world in a more figurative, poetic way than we do today. The language that we experience as figurative originally began as non-figurative, as, in other words, literal, and was then ‘worked on’, made figurative, and that is what we have inherited.

Evolution of meaning. As consciousness evolved, language shifted from a more holistic, participatory mode to a more literal, objective one. This shift reflects a growing separation between the self and the world, as language became a tool for describing external objects rather than expressing inner connection. This evolution of language, Barfield believes, took the ‘form of a contraction of meaning and therefore of consciousness – an evolution from wide and vague to narrow and precise, and from what was peripherally based to what is centrally based’.

Poetry as a bridge. Barfield argues that poetry can help us reconnect with the original, participatory nature of language. By using metaphor and figurative language, poetry can evoke a sense of inner meaning and break down the barriers between the self and the world. This produces an ‘expansion’ of meaning rather than its ‘contraction,’ which is the result of the drift into a literal way of seeing the world.

6. Goethe's "Active Seeing" Unlocks Nature's Secrets

Through observation, exercise, and mental effort he had penetrated to an imperceptible reality, the idea of the architect.

Beyond objective observation. Goethe challenged the purely objective approach to science, advocating for a more participatory and imaginative way of knowing. His "active seeing" involved engaging with phenomena with warmth, attentiveness, and a willingness to see their inner meaning. Goethe’s ‘active seeing’ is similar to the effort that Owen Barfield suggested was needed in order to experience ‘participation’ consciously.

The Urpflanze. Goethe's search for the Urpflanze, or "primal plant," exemplifies his approach to science. He believed that by observing and imagining the plant in its totality, he could grasp its underlying essence and understand the principles of its growth and transformation. Goethe’s Urpflanze was – or is – a kind of botanical Platonic Form, an ideal model from which all actual plants emerge.

Truth as participation. Goethe believed that truth is not something "out there" to be discovered, but rather a revelation that emerges from the meeting of the inner world of the observer and the outer world of nature. This participatory approach to knowledge requires a willingness to engage with phenomena with both reason and imagination. For him, what counted as true knowledge was what was good for man to know – something it requires wisdom, and not merely information, to grasp.

7. Imagination Bridges Inner and Outer Worlds

Truth for him was not wholly ‘out there’, as it was for the new breed of scientists, nor was it wholly ‘in here’, as idealist thinkers who saw everything as ‘in the mind’ believed.

Beyond subject-object divide. Goethe sought to bridge the gap between the subjective and objective, recognizing that true knowledge requires a synthesis of both. He believed that the inner world of the observer and the outer world of nature are interconnected and that understanding one requires understanding the other. This is so because ‘there resides in the objective world an unknown law which corresponds to the unknown law within subjective experience’.

Imagination as a bridge. Imagination serves as a bridge between the inner and outer worlds, allowing us to perceive the hidden connections and meanings that lie beneath the surface of things. By engaging our imagination, we can move beyond a purely objective understanding of the world and experience a deeper sense of connection and meaning. It was Goethe’s ‘developed inner life’ that enabled him to see the manifest secret of Strasbourg Cathedral.

Steiner's insight. Steiner took Goethe's insight and with it build a philosophy based on the necessity for the human ‘inside’ to complete the world ‘outside’. As Steiner wrote in his early work Goethe’s Conception of the World (1897): ‘Man is not only there in order to form for himself a picture of the finished world’ – which is what we assume from the natural standpoint and which forms the basis of conventional science – ‘Nay, he himself cooperates in bringing the world into existence’.

8. The Imaginal World: Reality Beyond the Senses

This is what is known as the ’âlam al-mithâl, or, as Corbin calls it, the mundus imaginalis, or ‘Imaginal World’.

Intermediate realm. Corbin introduces the concept of the "Imaginal World" (mundus imaginalis), a realm that exists between the purely intellectual and the purely sensory. This realm is not merely a product of subjective fantasy but has its own objective reality and laws. The Imaginal has its own mode of being, and that it can’t be reduced to the status of ‘just an idea’ – as Schiller considered Goethe’s Primal Plant – or some reflection of a physical tree.

Accessing the Imaginal. The Imaginal World can be accessed through visionary experiences, dreams, and other altered states of consciousness. These experiences are not simply hallucinations but rather glimpses into a hidden dimension of reality. The images seen and voices heard in the hypnagogic state symbolise the state of the psyche at that time.

Transformative power. By engaging with the Imaginal World, we can gain access to new sources of knowledge, creativity, and spiritual insight. This realm offers a way to transcend the limitations of our ordinary perception and experience a deeper connection with the divine. In essence it turns ‘facts’ into ‘meaning’ by linking parts into wholes. It does not ‘construct something unreal’ – that is the business of fantasy – but ‘unveils the hidden reality’.

9. Tradition Guides Responsible Imagination

Everything that liberates our mind without at the same time imparting self-control is pernicious.

Need for guidance. While imagination is a powerful tool, it must be guided by a tradition or framework to prevent it from becoming destructive or delusional. This tradition provides a set of symbols, metaphors, and images that can help us navigate the inner world and avoid the pitfalls of subjective fantasy. The idea is not for imagination to take the place of the analytical, quantitative mind, just as the analytical, quantitative mind should not have pushed its intuitive partner out of the picture four centuries ago.

The perennial philosophy. Raine identifies the perennial philosophy, with its roots in Plato, Plotinus, and other ancient sources, as a valuable guide for the imagination. This philosophy provides a framework for understanding the relationship between the material and spiritual worlds and offers a path to self-knowledge and enlightenment. This is the harmony that Pythagoras had taught and lived long ago and which informed one of the ‘two permanent needs of human nature’ that Francis Cornford had recognised.

Transformative power. By grounding our imagination in a tradition of wisdom and insight, we can harness its transformative power to create a more meaningful and fulfilling life. This involves a commitment to self-discipline, ethical responsibility, and a willingness to engage with the world in a spirit of love and compassion. The goal is to use our genetic predispositions as a starting point, not a limitation.

Last updated: April 13, 2025