Reason

What is the reasoning behind reason?

Why do we do things a certain way? How do we make decisions based on our specific circumstances? Yes, we must have the knowledge to understand these circumstances, the memory to recall our long term knowledge based on everything leading up to the circumstances and the imagination to picture the outcomes of the potential decisions that we could make, but there must be a combined purpose for applying all of these to the situation at hand. This is primarily what reason is; a pathway to making a certain decision, whilst applying all of the other ways of knowing. It is the way in which we try to make sense of the world using logic, rationality, comparison, judgement and experience.

Reason is specific, meaning that it can be applied in a unique and singular way to any context. We make major decisions based on reason, which can be applied in a number of ways. Weighing out the pros and cons of a certain situation is a popular one, as it can lead to a more thorough outlook upon the conception at hand.

Our reason nearly always occurs instinctively, as we decide on the best path to take almost unconsciously, depending on previous experiences involving similar situations. 

'It is possible to train ourselves to reason consciously, though, and the more one thinks about the decisions one is making, the more one is able to have active control over them. Some people have termed this intellectual enlightenment, the point where we are consciously aware of every choice we ever make. The extent to which this is achieved determines how rational we are.' according to theoryofknowledge.net

Some people however, make irrational decisions, not utilizing their reason completely or occasionally at all. We all make decisions on the spot sometimes, but when making decisions of high impact, we must teach ourselves to use our reason thoroughly, in order to prevent any regrets or irrational decisions which may be irreversible.

To what extent can we trust our reason? 

Our reason is something that develops over time, but can we truly trust it at all times? Is it possible that emotion plays a role in the context of reasoning? When emotion is applied nearly everything is considered biased, but is it possible that emotion, in this case, can be applied rationally? I believe that reasoning is a crucial aspect of making decisions, but one must still be careful when applying it, making sure that their reason is logical and analytical, as well as has only been slightly influenced by emotion.

Imagination

Imagine a world without imagination

How amazing is it that we can think up something we have never seen before? We have somehow been given the ability to imagine different scenarios which include objects and people that we came up with simply off the top of our heads. We can think up anything and everything, without a single limit or constriction, giving us endless possibilities and abilities. I for one, find this astonishing and am baffled by the fact that more people do not realize or appreciate how much of a gift this ability truly is. It is believed that some people have "more" imagination than others, meaning that they are more creative, but is this really the case, or are our imaginations just so different from one another?

Believe it or not there are a number of separate types of imagination, even though it seems difficult to categorize something as hypothetical as this. The following are the distinguished types of imagination (according to teachthoughts.com)

1. “Effectuative Imagination combines information together to synergize new concepts and ideas.”

2. “Intellectual (or Constructive) Imagination is utilized when considering and developing hypotheses from different pieces of information or pondering over various issues of meaning say in the areas of philosophy, management, or politics, etc.”

3. “Imaginative Fantasy Imagination creates and develops stories, pictures, poems, stage-plays, and the building of the esoteric, etc.”

4. “Empathy Imagination helps a person know emotionally what others are experiencing from their frame and reference.”

5. “Strategic Imagination is concerned about vision of ‘what could be’, the ability to recognize and evaluate opportunities by turning them into mental scenarios…”

6. “Emotional Imagination is concerned with manifesting emotional dispositions and extending them into emotional scenarios.”

7. “Dreams are an unconscious form of imagination made up of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur during certain stages of sleep.”

8. “Memory Reconstruction is the process of retrieving our memory of people, objects, and events.”

Even though this is an effective way of differentiating between forms of imagination, this concept still remains as debatable and suppositional as ever