Kraitzick 1

My Capstone Writing
Cover Letter

I have always been fascinated by the things that go on in our mind, what goes on behind

the subconscious, and how that plays into our reality. With this essay I am taking reality and

imagination and contrasting them only to bring them together and see how they work together.

The process I went through to create this essay started with me and my best friend having deep

late night conversations and simply forming thoughts around the metaphysical and abstract

world. Secondly was my obsession with psychology and specifically the mind itself, the ins and

outs of how thoughts work, and overall what the conscious and subconscious is. Understanding

the mind is the future of our world, with such a demand for mental health and the continued

development of artificial emotions in AI, understanding ourselves is a crucial piece of it all. So

please join me as I take you on a journey of imagination and reality and what they are, and even

what they aren't.

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Jackson Kraitzick

Dr. Holt

English 12

16 April 2024

Imagination and Reality

For the longest time, humanity has asked a multitude of questions about the human

condition, some of the most frequent being the human mind and how it works. What makes up

the subconscious mind, and even the conscious? How is it that we dream, imagine, and create

further ideas for the betterment of ourselves and others? Imagination and reality exist in tandem

within our world; they build off each other to create more. The two live in synergy yet both

operate on their own terms, contradicting each other at every turn. While imagination stems off

of what is not there, reality stems off of what is existent and tangible. With that being said, it

would be a plausible thought to say imagination isn’t necessary with everything already existing

within reality, well, there is much more than simple existence. Without imagination, humanity

would be nowhere and still be the apes we were thousands of years ago. Imagination is what

gives humanity its edge to defy natural selection and exist on our own terms.

Firstly, we need to define the concepts of imagination and reality, to create a basis. Let's

define reality first. To be precise let's take the Oxford Dictionary definition of the word: “the

world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of

them.” Reality exists to be the facts and reason within our world; everything must exist within

laws and rules, this is where reality thrives. Reality provides humanity with a blank storybook in

which we can build and discover in whatever ways we see fit. Yet the issue with reality is its

limitations, even to go on and say that it itself is bland. With that being said, reality is still
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necessary, though it is the straightforward and the pure meaning of all that is, without it, there

would be nothing. We as humans attribute facts to what is real, and for many without facts and

legitimate proof, ideas are simply ideas and nothing more. Science itself states that everything

needs proof or else it is theoretical. Take a game of Dungeons and Dragons, a mystical story

made up by the Dungeon Master (DM) to provide a fun adventurous experience to the players.

The DM must still create a world with boundaries and rules and ground and sky and everything

that must be, to make up that which is fun and adventurous. We may attribute reality to a bland

space filled with only facts, yet, it is the building blocks for our world. But, how is it that we fill

this space with such color and life? The imagination.

Imagination is what gives a human the ability to create universes nearer to the heart's

desire (Barron, 1958). To describe this a little bit, we can delve into the subject of human

selfishness; imagination aids humanity in developing thoughts and feelings that benefit

themselves. Even yet this is how humanity has continued to move forward, by imagining that

which is seemingly unimaginable. When scientists desire to do more, they imagine what could

happen if they could see into other galaxies. Thomas Hobbes takes another viewpoint of

imagination in Leviathan (chapter 2: of imagination): “IMAGINATION, therefore, is nothing

more than a decaying sense.” Now what Hobbes means by this is that imagination is simply the

image of past things that we are conceiving and combining in our mind. If one sees a lizard and

wings, the mind may come up with a dragon. Truly it is the wonder of the what if and what will

be if a certain variable is involved, it is a wonder. Another way to look deeper into what

imagination is, is by looking into dreams and dreamlike states. As yet again states in Leviathan

Chapter 2: of imagination “waking I often observe the absurdity of dreams, but never dream of

the absurdities of my waking thoughts” (Margin: Dreams). The concept of dreams consists of
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what we know from the past and is usually incomprehensible, as stated by Hobbes. Dreams are a

perfect look into the “decaying” concept of imagination, the subconscious takes all the stimuli

and imagery received through life and creates dreams. An abstract combination of seemingly

random things which may or may not make sense. But the interesting aspect of dreams, stated by

Hobbes, is that while dreams may seem random they also have meaning. An individual can have

good dreams, bad dreams, happy dreams, sad dreams; all of our dreams tend to have meaning but

are made up of everything we have received. To truly sum up the imagination one must consider

both Hobbes and Barron's viewpoints. Barron takes imagination as a wondrous tool for

ingenuity, while Hobbes looks at imagination simply as extracts of reality. Though they are both

right, using the past experiences humans have they combine these past pieces to come up with

grander things. Though this imagination and its decaying sense and wondrous grandeur cannot

exist without reality.

While both imagination and reality may contradict each other, reality being a factual

place consisting of that which is, and imagination being a wondrous space of that which isn’t,

they work beautifully together. Take the moon landing for example, a seemingly impossible feat

to set an individual on the moon, yet, it still happened. And it probably would not have happened

if not for imagination. Aristotle stated “ That the Mind understands and is instructed by the

Senses: That it is naturally and of itself, a perfect blank, a clean white Paper…” Given that all

humans start on the basis of not knowing anything it is the 5 senses as we know it that give us

life into what to do and how to live. For the first parts of our lives, according to psychologists

like Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Lev Vygotsky; we spend our lives simply looking and

understanding what is around us and it is only once we get older that we develop the wonder of

MORE, of what else is in existence beside us. We spend the first part of our lives developing the
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id, ego, and superego: the id being our impulsive aspects driven by pleasure and pain, the

superego being the morally correct aspects of ourselves, and the ego being the mediator between

the two. These can play a large role in the imagination, driving our imagination towards different

areas. Depending on the stimulus received to turn our mind from a blank piece of paper into a

complex drawing filled with thousands of different ideas inside each other, the reality we take in

may become something else. For someone driven by the id they may imagine their future purely

on an aspect of money and selfishness, while an individual driven by the superego may imagine

themselves in the future surrounded by family and friends. The imagination not only exists to

simply wonder of what is more but it is the driving force in human development, to strive

towards more and greater things. It is what gives human beings a different perspective than many

animals, almost in a way letting us deny evolution itself and break out of natural selection

putting ourselves in the forefront.

Ultimately, human goals and pursuits would not exist without imagination, the ability to

take multiple things from the past reality and turn them into something else; this is the

cornerstone of our existence and one of the sole techniques pushing humanity forward. Realizing

this in our world could bring more to our innovation, those who once believed the earth was flat

only to be disproven later, could have stepped forward if the minority was not pushed and called

a fool. The world instantly strives to be better than everybody else, to know more than everyone

else, but how is it that humanity lives like this with so many people from many different walks of

life? Taking everyone's ideas and opinions into consideration could save us more time, less hate,

and overall a more unified humanity.

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DRAFT 1
Cover Letter
My topic is truly a discussion and comparison of how the imagination plays a role in reality but

also what the two are separately. Imagination, by many philosophers is simply another facet of

the mind, some say a decaying sense of one's past before death, some simply say a way to

compound already known thoughts to create new ideas. Yet the idea that I have found stands so

heavily above the rest is the concept of imagination being an extract of reality, an umbrella term

if you will. The first step in this writing will be to understand just exactly what the imagination

is, even with multiple personas, I will ideally take the multiple perceptions of the imagination

and attempt to define it into something tangible enough to compare to reality and existence itself.

A way to put it off the bat is, take any other animal, many animals exist in accordance with

nature, they exist within the same life and day-in day-out lifestyle only until nature says

otherwise. Natural selection, overrun by other stronger species, yet humans seem to be different,

they reject nature's ideology and live on their means and not the means the world has provided.

This is a large aspect of what imagination is, the ability to IMAGINE into the future based on

understanding of the current.

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Jackson Kraitzick

English 12

Dr. Holt

3 April 2024

Imagination v. Reality

A big question humanity has been asking for a long time is what is the imagination, or

even farther out what is the human brain. What makes up the subconscious mind, and even the

conscious, how is it we dream and imagine and create further ideas for the betterment of

ourselves and others? Imagination and reality are two concepts that go hand in hand, one forms

situations off the other and vice versa. The two live with synergy yet both seem to operate on

their own terms, almost contradicting each other at every turn. While imagination stems off of

what is not there, reality stems off of what is existent and tangible. With that being said it would

be a plausible thought to say imagination isn’t necessary if we have everything we need right in

front of us, well, I am here to prove that wrong. Without imagination humanity would be

nowhere and still be the apes we were thousands of years ago. Imagination is the driving force

behind human ingenuity and is the cornerstone of human improvement, it is the what in the why,

the how in the where, and the so in the if.

Firstly we need to define the concepts of imagination and reality, to create a basis lets

define reality first. To be precise let's take the Oxford Dictionary definition of the word: “the

world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of

them.” Now there isn’t much to argue here, reality is what it is, it is the existence of what is

around us. It is the blank canvas we are provided to color all of our ideas and thoughts of what

and who we are, reality provides us with the tools we need to innovate and create. Yet an issue
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with reality is that it is limiting, even to go on and say that it itself is bland. It is purely and

utterly the existence as it is. A cow walks through a meadow and sees grass, that grass is to eat,

and that is all. To believe purely in reality is to believe purely in rhyme in reason, that which is

cemented in life and not given any other chance.

So imagination is and will be and always has been many things, you could say it’s an

imaginary friend from when you were a kid, or as far as the space landing on the moon. Though

imagination goes much deeper than that. As said in Thomas Hobbes Leviathan (chapter 2: of

imagination): “IMAGINATION, therefore, is nothing more than a decaying sense.” Now what

Hobbes means by this is that imagination is simply the image of past things that we are

conceiving and combining in our mind. If one sees a lizard and wings one can come up with a

dragon. Now to specify even deeper, imagining is not thinking, thinking is understanding that a

triangle has 3 sides, while imagining is wondering what would happen if a triangle had 1 million

sides. Truly it is the wonder of the what if and what will be if a certain variable is involved, it is a

wonder. While both imagination and reality are within their respective areas they cannot act

alone.

While both imagination and reality may contradict each other, reality being a bland

description of that which is, and imagination being a wondrous space of that which isn’t, they

work beautifully together. Take the moon landing for example, a seemingly impossible feet to set

an individual on the moon, yet, it still happened. And it probably would not have happened if not

for imagination. Aristotle stated “ That the Mind understands and is instructed by the Senses:

That it is naturally and of itself, a perfect Blank, a clean white Paper…” Given that all humans

start on the basis of not knowing anything it is the 5 senses as we know it that give us life into

what to do and how to live. For the first parts of our lives, according to psychologists like Freud,
 Kraitzick 9

Erikson, and Vygotsky; we spend our lives simply looking and understanding what is around us

and it is only once we get older that we develop the wonder of MORE, of what else is in

existence beside us. We spend the first part of our lives developing the id, ego, and superego: the

id being our impulsive aspects driven by pleasure and pain, the superego being the morally

correct aspects of ourselves, and the ego being the mediator between the two. These can play a

large role in the imagination, driving our imagination towards different areas. Depending on the

stimulus received to turn our mind from a blank piece of paper into a complex drawing filled

with thousands of different ideas inside each other, the reality we take in may become something

else. For someone driven by the id they may imagine their future purely on an aspect of money

and selfishness, while an individual driven by the superego may imagine themselves in the future

surrounded by family and friends. The imagination not only exists to simply wonder of what is

more but it is the driving force in human development, to strive towards more and greater things.

It is what gives human beings a different perspective than many animals, almost in a way letting

us deny evolution itself and break out of natural selection putting ourselves in the forefront.

Ultimately human goals and pursuits would not exist without imagination, the ability to

take multiple things from a bland reality and create wonders BEYOND our imagination.

Imagination is the cornerstone of our existence, pushing us to more. Realizing this in our world

could bring more to our innovation, those who once believed the earth was flat only to be

disproven later, could have stepped forward if the minority was not pushed and called a fool.

Taking everyones ideas and opinions into consideration could save us more time, less hate, and

overall a more unified humanity.