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Hello, Kant said, imagination is a blind but indispensable function of the soul,

without which we should have no knowledge whatever, but of which we're scarcely even conscious.

Imagination has been most obviously the companion of artists, scientists, leaders and

visionaries, but what exactly is it, and why do all of us possess it?

When did human beings first develop an imagination and why?

How does it relate to creativity and what evolutionary function does creativity have?

And is it possible to know whether our brain's capacity for imagination is still evolving?

With me to discuss this is Dr. Susan Stewart, lecture in philosophy of mind at the University

of Glasgow, Stephen Mython, Professor of Early Prehistory at the University of Glasgow, Stephen Mython, Professor of Early Prehistory at the University of Reading,

and Samozaki Professor of Neurobiology at the University of London and author of

Inovision and Exploration of part and the brain.

Susan Stewart, what do we mean by imagination in everyday life?

I think there are a number of possible definitions of what imagination might be.

There are two very clear ones that Kant gives us.

The first is bringing to mind something which is not wholly present,

so being able to imagine, for example, my cat lying asleep on the couch at home a cat that is clearly not in this studio and the other definition which is a much more complex definition is putting together the sensory experiences I have perhaps with some

application of the understanding to synthesize or conjoin my thoughts to create complex thoughts which I can then put into

propositional terms. So those are two definitions that count offers us. The

second much more complex leading to knowledge and perhaps our beliefs.

I want to just stop there.

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