Describe Understanding Of Imagination And Spirituality

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Imagination and Spirituality
The purpose of life is to find truth or to attain a certain goal. Some people believe that spirituality and imagination are what one needs to find the meanings of life. This paper addresses the question of how Wendell Berry’s understanding of imagination and spirituality may apply to the more practical issues addressed in the essays of Gopnik and de Botton.
Alain de Botton in his essay titled On Habit talks about how confining oneself inside a grid of interest could, in fact, limit forms of sympathy. This author theorizes that imagination serves to open the door to new perceptions towards society. In the essay Bumping into Mr. Ravioli, Adam Gopnik talks about Olivia, a young girl who lives in a paracosm. Her paracosm comprises an imaginary friend who goes by the name Charlie Ravioli. Wendell Berry’s God, Science and Imagination, in comparison, elucidates the notion of absolutism, posing one particular standard of truth. According to him, having a fundamentalist state of mind, restricts human beings from understanding and gaining knowledge. He suggests that imagination and sympathy are paths towards knowledge. He also brings to light how the contemporary society deserting the notion of imagination and spirituality could limit new points of view or bring about misperception.
An individual’s belief system could influence one’s knowledge very much, and having the capability of persuading other people into a belief could affect their knowledge. This is the case with Professor Steven Weinberg, a scientific fundamentalist and a well-known physicist who won a Nobel Prize in Wendell’s essay. After Steven Weinberg gained such an accomplishment, he gained power and asserted his beliefs to individuals. He pointed out in Berry (180) that he is “concerned professionally with finding out what is true.” The statement could be factual, but Weinberg asserted in Berry (180) that “more and more of us know that there is nothing after death.” It is of note that this belief is in disagreement with the definition of truth considering that this belief is not supported by any evidence or facts. Professor Steven Weinberg never viewed the notion of imagination as a part of the belief, but rather as the absolute truth. As a case in point, if a person is very religious, his or her perceptions of God would never change owing to their belief system.
Conversely, de Botton in his essay On Habit reaches the conclusion that sympathy and knowledge could be limited when one constrains himself/herself in grid of interest. As a case in point, after returning from Barbados to his hometown of London, Alain de Botton stated that “the city had stubbornly refused to change” (Botton 59). This author asserted that he did not feel any satisfaction returning to a beautiful city. This is due to staying on the grid of interest given that de Botton does not have knowledge of this city as a beautiful place. In the same way, in Bumping into Mr. Ravioli by Adam Gopnik, Charlie Ravioli, the imaginary friend was created from how Olivia perceived the society. As the society presents a cult of busyness, many people within the society get to acquire this cult. Gopnik (81) noted that as some youngsters become older “they turn out to possess what child psychologists call a paracosm.” It is of note that Olivia’s paracosm of busy playfellow illustrates the way that Olivia is slowly being affected by the belief system of the society. Olivia is influenced by the belief system to the point that her knowledge and imagination are also being affected. As such, the way that knowledge could be influenced or gained is primarily based upon beliefs.
Through imagination, an individual forms mental concepts of what is not really present to the senses. According to Berry (187), “one of its aspects is the power through which we sympathize.” He also maintains that reality should be approached with an attitude of humility, knowing that religion, art and science could each only comprehend parts of it. This way, imagination allows a person to picture what it would be to have someone else’s feelings. In his essay, Berry illustrates that religion and science fundamentalists were secure in their belief as they assert to be. These fundamentalists rejected the notion of imagination. In comparison, de Botton defined imagination as having a traveling mindset and it was a way of obtaining satisfaction. This author in his essay commented on a 27-year old Frenchman named Xavier de Maistre, who takes a journey around his bedroom and called it Journey Around my Bedroom, wherein travelers “were in search of a particular room” hoping to find satisfaction but they never found it, which made them feel “a little betrayed” (Botton 61). Put simply, it is generally harder in life for a person to become happy with society if he or she cannot be hap...