August Entry 2 - Is imagination more important than reason for an understanding of the sources of the past?

 TOK ESSAY

There are many different ways to interpret sources of the past. These sources can be primary, secondary, etc… History is an AOK with many different points of views. These points of views can arise from people’s imaginations. Perspectives or points of view vary from person to person. These ideas that people form are mainly related to their imagination and their points of view. However this would create a bias. 

It is not a fair way to judge something by using imagination. Here perspectives do help gather more versions of knowledge to a particular topic. However when doing this, accumulated knowledge can make it hard to sort through all the sources. Here is where reason is very helpful. 

It can help statistically analyze the sources and order them according to a particular pattern.When reason is used it means the thinking is more logical than making assumptions. This makes the ordering of sources more accurate as well. Reason is a more reliable way to think, and it can help come up with more logical solutions to problems. 

Imagination is the most natural thing for humans to do. Our imaginations are most active and real when we are young, and as we learn to reason, we lose our imaginary side of ourselves. Reason often inhibits imagination. Imagination is what is used to create science, without it, there would be no theories, no hypotheses, no ideas that you wish to test and base scientific laws around. Imagination is science, while reason simply refines the ideas that imagination brings to light.

There are both positives and negatives when it comes to this topic so it really depends on the situation and how thinking skills are applied. Each outcome can vary, but bias can't be shown to either determination process. It is purely based on the situation and a persons point of view. Hence it is felt that reason and imagination both might play a slightly larger role in interpreting sources of the past than when compared to picking any one.