The Power of the Imagination

Looks at the faculty of the imagination and discusses its power and importance. Suggests that the imagination should have a central role in our life, considering a traditional balance between the active and contemplative lives. Discusses the philosopher David Hume and other empiricists who downplayed the imagination. Also looks at today's hectic and chaotic world which rarely allows time for a proper development of the imagination. The imagination is seen as cutting through the 'hierarchy of needs', that infinite ascent into superfluity which characterises the essential dissatisfaction of modern life. Looks at two forms of the imaginative vision, an earlier spiritual form and a later Romantic form. Concludes that this faculty is an essential element in the psyche which we should allow to develop.