Comparing Reason and Imagination

Reason and Imagination are normally considered opposites in the scientific world. Many scientists choose to believe in reason instead of imagination as it offers answers while imagination offers ideas and theories. All of this returns to the theme of knowledge. A great scientist called Albert Einstein once said:

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

I stand by this reasoning. Many discoveries would not have been made if there were no imagination. For instance, many people thought the world was flat and they stuck by it. Those who contradicted this statement where believed to have been crazy to have thought the world was round. They couldn't prove either of these theses as no one had sailed around the whole world or been to the edge of the world. Imagination lead to the ultimate fact that the world is in fact spherical. Once a point is made out of imagination then reason is added so as to make the point make sense. Imagination is a key part of our lives. Many movies are made about the future and how we imagine it would be like, because we cannot say for sure exactly what will happen in the future.

Reason is very different. Reason is for people who want and need answers. In science only reason is used otherwise it would not considered science but philosophy. This is one of the great problems that is facing the world of Quantum Mechanics at the moment. The new theory of String Theory has been announced and it has lead to some argumentation and discussion. You see this theory is almost impossible to prove as the strings themselves are so minuscule that we can not see them under any form of equipment or test the in any way. This theory though may be the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. It has been accepted by many scientists even though it cannot be proved. It takes some imagination to come up with this answer and it has hardly any reason behind it meaning that scientists are turning on their own principles and choosing to believe in this theory because it seems as though it could be correct and it makes everything make sense and has a very simple answer.

To form some sort of conclusion i believe that imagination is so much more important then reason, not necessarily within the natural science world but within the human world. Imagination has lead us as a race to so much more then just finding out things and what they do. Imagination has evolved us as a species and has lead to important discoveries throughout the various regions of our planet. Reason is important yes, but for me it is meaningless compared to Imagination.