Consider Miles Davis, horn held high, sculpting a powerful musical
statement full of tonal patterns, inside jokes, and thrilling
climactic phrases all on the fly. Or think of a comedy troupe
riffing on a couple of cues from the audience until the whole room
is erupting with laughter. Or maybe it's a team of software
engineers brainstorming their way to the next Google, or the
Einsteins of the world code-cracking the mysteries of nature. Maybe
it's simply a child playing with her toys. What do all of these
activities share? With wisdom, humor, and joy, philosopher Stephen
T. Asma answers that question in this book: imagination. And from
there he takes us on an extraordinary tour of the human creative
spirit. Guided by neuroscience, animal behavior, evolution,
philosophy, and psychology, Asma burrows deep into the human psyche
to look right at the enigmatic but powerful engine that is our
improvisational creativity the source, he argues, of our remarkable
imaginational capacity. How is it, he asks, that a story can evoke
a whole world inside of us? How are we able to rehearse a skill, a
speech, or even an entire scenario simply by thinking about it? How
does creativity go beyond experience and help us make something
completely new? And how does our moral imagination help us sculpt a
better society? As he shows, we live in a world that is only partly
happening in reality. Huge swaths of our cognitive experiences are
made up by "what-ifs," "almosts," and "maybes," an imagined terrain
that churns out one of the most overlooked but necessary resources
for our flourishing: possibilities. Considering everything from how
imagination works in our physical bodies to the ways we make
images, from the mechanics of language and our ability to tell
stories to the creative composition of self-consciousness, Asma
expands our personal and day-to-day forms of imagination into a
grand scale: as one of the decisive evolutionary forces that has
guided human development from the Paleolithic era to today. The
result is an inspiring look at the rich relationships among
improvisation, imagination, and culture, and a privileged glimpse
into the unique nature of our evolved minds.
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