Imaginal Thinking Research Articles

The Language Origin of the Thinking Differences Between Chinese and English

Language is not merely a tool for communication; it is intricately intertwined with thinking and culture, perpetually evolving under their profound influence. Linguists widely acknowledge that language acts as a reflection of peoples worldview, unveiling diverse modes of thinking, cultural values, and perspectives. The objective of this paper is to delve into the disparities between the English and Chinese languages, shedding light on how these linguistic characteristics engender four fundamental thinking distinctions: imaginal thinking versus logical thinking, linear thinking versus curved thinking, holistic thinking versus individual thinking, and subjective thinking versus objective thinking. By exploring these disparities, a deeper understanding of the intricate relationship between language and cognition can be gained. This exploration helps to comprehend how language not only shapes perception of the world but also influences thought processes and cultural perspectives. This research contributes to the broader field of linguistics and provides valuable insights into cross-cultural communication and understanding.

Conceptualizing a transdisciplinary nexus for addressing complex problems

We envision opening a way of perceiving the transdisciplinary Hidden Third as a transcendental nexus of both passive and active causal powers reflecting and engaged with the external structures that create the complex social realities in which we live. It is in these realities and their possible worlds that the revealing of our relational capacities and activating (actualising) potentialities occurs. We propose that innovative and co-created solutions to complex problems can emerge when something at work within each person helps very differently minded people with a stake in an issue to realise that they have capabilities and potential that can be actualised situationally. To facilitate this idea, we adopt a notion of transindividuality, which is constitutive through relationality. This is a futural process of imaginal thinking and imaginary thinking. We suggest that when temporarily functioning in an intermediate inner universe (mundus imaginalis), and by operating between the empirical (concrete facts) and the abstract (e.g., meditative thinking), active imaginal powers foster emergent solutions unbounded by the positivistic framing problems and their future consequences. We conceptualized a transdisciplinary nexus that draws from the mundus imaginalis and the Hidden Third to provide deeper insights into the role that people’s inner images of the world play when engaging in transdisciplinary problem solving.

A novel deep generative model based on imaginal thinking for automating design

Automating design faces a thorny problem: insight modeling based on knowledge and experience. In particular, it is difficult for artificial intelligence to perform incomplete conditional reasoning. The deep generative model (DGM) is an emerging approach of machine learning, which typically uses deep networks to learn from various data sets and synthesize new designs. This paper proposes a novel DGM based on imaginal thinking to realize the creative leap from the invisible functional domain to the concrete physical domain. An experiment is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model in designing wheels for mobile robots in granular media.

Methodyc’s of formation of artistic and imaginal thinking of students-vocalists

Methodyc’s of formation of artistic and imaginal thinking of students-vocalists

On the Distinctive Features of the Modern Scientific Culture

Remarkable strides have been made in science ever since the scientific revolution in the 17th century, and the scientific community continues to prosper today. In its professional activities and social life, this community has created a scientific culture that is increasingly prosperous and is having a significant impact on the development of human culture. The scientific culture has distinctive features that are different from those of the literary culture. For example, it emphasizes the decisive role of objective examination in the course of enquiry to reduce the impact of the subjectivity of researchers on the results. It also stresses the objectivity of knowledge and testing that objectivity through reproducibility. It favours experimental and mathematical approaches while underestimating the roles of imaginal and intuitive thinking, and advocates the values of utilitarianism. This paper concludes that the distinctive features of the scientific culture should be examined in the course of its current development to eliminate the negative impact of utilitarianism.

The Listening Train: A Collaborative, Connective Aesthetics Approach to Transgressive Social Learning

This paper explores a personal iterative retrospective of a series of expansive social-learning processes that were collaboratively developed through practice-based enquiry across 17 South African towns/contexts. This reflexive narrative explores the development of a ‘Climate Train’, a mobile social-learning platform, that was conceived and created through a collaborative social movement of ‘cultural practitioners’ ranging from visual artists, poets, film-makers, theatre-makers, guerrilla-gardeners, musicians, facilitators, to educational researchers, among others, who created new ‘connective aesthetic’ social spaces for dialogue and exchange. Drawing from a variety of artistic genres, including but not limited to theatre and social sculpture (an expanded concept of public/participatory art), I reflect on the formative, foundational qualities of these approaches and share insights into social-learning praxis that emerged on the tracks. Of primary focus is the use of aesthetic praxis as a means that transforms how we engage with our inner capacities as well as how we develop our relational sensibilities. Key findings include the vital role of connective aesthetics in establishing imaginal thinking, moral intuition, empathy, participative parity, and emergence, and how these are important for transformation and establishing new capacities for ecological/global citizenship and collaborative intelligence. Keywords : Connective aesthetics, transgressive learning, transformation, social learning, transdisciplinary praxis, practice-based research, commons, ecological citizenship.

Automating design with intelligent human–machine integration

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art methodologies for automating design with intelligent human–machine integration from the perspectives of ontology and epistemology. The human–machine integrated automating design paradigm is reviewed systematically based on a proposed prototype of human–machine integrated design, from the aspects of ontology-based knowledge management with local-to-global ontology transitions, and epistemology-based upward-spiral cognitive process of coupled design ideation. Particularly, imaginal thinking frame is proposed as the foundation of intelligent human–machine interaction that puts human and machine on an equal platform. Further, this paper presents implementations and applications of the automating design paradigm and concludes with the identification of future trend.

Imaginal Thinking-Based Human-Machine Design Methodology for the Configuration of Reconfigurable Machine Tools

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) has emerged as an advanced system for applying Enterprise Systems (ES) in manufacturing enterprises to dynamically adapt to the changing market. Although it has been recognized that human-machine interaction plays a significant role in configuration design, especially for reconfigurable machines tools (RMTs), for the core of RMS, there are no platforms available for the harmonious interaction between human and computer, mainly because of the limitation of traditional artificial intelligence frame. In this paper, we present a human-machine design methodology for the configuration of RMTs based on imaginal thinking, a thinking style described as forming and comparison of images, which is radically different from traditional logical and intuitive thinking. The knowledge and experience that are highly relevant to mechanical design and the related information in logical deduction are organized as high dimensional images. By imitating human imaginal thinking, computer employs Lie subgroup or submanifold and Quotient kinematics to generate all possible configurations in the form of images, while humans make judgments and complete the optimization process through the imaginal human-machine interface. Both human's decision-making ability based on knowledge and experience and computer's high-speed logical computation are exploited to a full extent. This novel design methodology has illustrated its effectiveness by an example concerning the design of a pipe-cutting RMT.

Pipe assembly planning algorithm by imitating human imaginal thinking

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a computationally efficient and generally applicable measure for a pipe routing problem which decides the pipe paths and affects the pipe assembly feasibility. By imitating human thinking in pipe assembly planning, human's experience and intuition are quantified and applied in the pipe routing algorithm.Design/methodology/approachHuman's imaginal thinking is simulated with procedures of knowledge representation, pattern recognition, and logical deduction; the algorithm transforms the physical obstacles and constraints into 3D pipe routing space and then into 2D planar projection, by using convex hull algorithm onto the projection, the shortest pipe route is found efficiently.FindingsA novel pipe assembly planning algorithm by imitating human imaginal thinking is presented, which effectively solved the problem of conceiving the shortest pipe route in 3D space with obstacles and constraints.Practical implicationsThe application of the algorithm in assembly planning of an aircraft engine pipe system is demonstrated. The algorithm can also be used in similar pipe planning problems such as industrial plant pipe planning and submarine pipe system design.Originality/valueHuman's imaginal thinking is introduced into pipe routing algorithm for the first time. By using graphics as the media to transfer the pipe routing information, human's experience and intuition in pipe assembly planning are quantified and computationally applicable.

A pipe route design methodology by imitating human imaginal thinking

Pipe system design like aero-engine, not only a typical NP-hard problem in limited 3D space, must also extraordinarily depend on human experience. This paper presents a methodology for designing compact pipe systems by fully imitating human's imaginal thinking based on image. The feasible workspace is represented as images of the holistic layout of pipes on the basis of human experience. The improved visible graph imitating human pipe-routing behaviour is conducted to form possible edge sequence tree. Moreover, the global optimal pipe path is generated from the tree. The simulation demonstrated the effectiveness of the pipe route design methodology.

Interaction foci, information synthesis, and mental activity.

The cerebral organization of mental activity is based on neural integration, specialization of functions, and the combination of rigid and flexible connections. These principles are embodied in dynamic structures, interaction foci that are detectable in the cortex during intellectual activity by means of the intracortical interaction mapping technique. Interaction foci comprise centers of cortical connections. A focus consists of neuronal groups connected by rigid connections, based on structural changes in the synapses. Each of the groups has its own frequency characteristics and is connected by flexible connections constructed on the principle of iso-lability, with neural elements at the periphery which are isorhythmic to it. The construction of interaction focus supports the synthesis of information arriving from sense organs and centers of motivations, and extractable from memory. Information synthesis underlies mental functions, the cerebral basis for which includes a rigid nucleus and a system of peripheral connections, the configuration of which may vary, thus controlling the uniqueness of a given mental experience. The principle of specialization of functions is manifested in the fact that the topography of interaction foci varies for different mental acts. In the case of perception the projection cortex is the integration center; in the case of thinking, the associative zones of the cortex are the integrative center. Imaginal thinking is primarily associated with the parietotemporal, and abstract thinking with the frontal, divisions of the cortex. Evidently, the two principle functions of consciousness are also spatially separated: integration of the "Self", which includes the volitional principle, and communication.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

One man's memory for prose, faces and names

Further studies are reported of a mnemonist, T.E., in which his memory for a story, faces and names for faces was studied. He scored at a high level on these tasks compared with control subjects, through the use of mnemonics, usually involving imagery. He scored highly on a test of imaginal thinking but not on verbal thinking.

Differential cognitive contributions of the cerebral hemispheres in the modulation of emotional arousal

To examine the differential roles of the two cerebral hemispheres in emotional processes, college students viewed sexual or aversive slides under instructions to either facilitate or inhibit their emotional responses. An auditory attentional bias measure suggested that reported aversive emosional arousal was associated with relatively greater activation of the right hemisphere. Analysis of the subjects' naturalistic cognitive strategies suggested that analytic and verbal ideation was most often used to inhibit arousal, while global and imaginal thinking was used to facilitate emotion.

Comment

The interesting and suggestive interpretation offered by A. J, Watt in this journal (pp. 171-89 above) of Spinoza’s account of God’s causality to some extent anticipates the discussion of the topic which I am undertaking in a forthcoming book on Spinoza’s philosophy. To a greater extent it is, of course, anticipated by Stuart Hampshire in his study of Spinoza. I agree with Mr. Watt’s objections to some of the traditional interpretations of Spinoza’s doctrine and I think it is in fact immune from the strictures of some critics who attempt to explain the succession of finite modes in Substance as a product of imaginal thinking, a view which must lead to a paralogism in Spinoza’s thought so gross that he could not have been unaware of it and could not have committed unless he had been. I shall not enter into this part of the discussion, as I have no wish to contest what Mr. Watt has written with respect to it, but shall confine my attention to his own (and incidentally Hampshire’s) interpretation.