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Full Idea
We can stare stupidly at phenomena; but in the absence of imagination they will not connect themselves together in any rational way.
Gist of Idea
Only imagination can connect phenomena together in a rational way
Source
Charles Sanders Peirce (Scientific Attitude and Fallibilism [1899], I)
Book Ref
Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Philosophical Writings of Peirce', ed/tr. Buchler,Justus [Dover 1940], p.43
A Reaction
The importance of this is its connection between imagination and 'rational' understanding. This is an important corrective to a crude traditional picture of the role of imagination. I would connect imagination with counterfactuals and best explanation.
| 24062 | Self-moving animals must have desires, and that entails having imagination [Aristotle] |
| 9098 | Mental activity combines what we sense with imagination of what is not present [Aquinas] |
| 1399 | Imagination and sensation are non-essential to mind [Descartes] |
| 17260 | Imagination is just weakened sensation [Hobbes] |
| 7721 | Locke's view that thoughts are made of ideas asserts the crucial role of imagination [Locke] |
| 21806 | Memory, senses and understanding are all founded on the imagination [Hume] |
| 7647 | The imagination alone perceives all objects; it is the soul, playing all its roles [La Mettrie] |
| 22443 | We are seldom aware of imagination, but we would have no cognition at all without it [Kant] |
| 8094 | The imagination has made more discoveries than the eye [Joubert] |
| 14769 | Only imagination can connect phenomena together in a rational way [Peirce] |
| 14628 | Imagination is important, in evaluating possibility and necessity, via counterfactuals [Williamson] |
| 6901 | Understanding is needed for imagination, just as much as the other way around [Betteridge] |
| 11081 | Imagination grasps abstracta, generates images, and has its own correctness conditions [Hanna] |