Knowledge, imagination, morality

Express Tribune

4 days ago

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It always feels so good to listen to students' questions during an informal discussion. In such an environment, I have found students speaking their heart out to relieve themselves of the suffocation caused by the unasked question which becomes more suffocating if it remains unanswered.
The questions vary on a wide range of topics — some academic, some personal and occasionally philosophical. Among these questions, sometimes, lands a question that begs deep thought and productive debate. One such question was asked, though very casually: "Is there any relationship between intelligence and morality?" And such questions can never be expected on a Procrustean bed.
I told students that if they could think up solutions to their daily problems, if they knew how to deal with urgencies, or if they felt the pain when they saw people around in distress, they were intelligent by all means. They possess what the grade seekers don't: empathetic imagination. Only imagination can turn intelligence into moral thinking. Albert Einstein said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
A morally responsible person is always in possession of a beautiful imagination. Generally, morality is associated with dos and don'ts. Morality, when misconstrued, clips the wings of imagination. On the other hand, imagination is the power we have to put things to ourselves in images.
In the moral sphere, imagination gains a more active role if it is stimulated to arouse the feeling of empathy leading to sympathy, which, according to David Hume, is the fountainhead of those actions that make us civilised beings. Without using imagination, we can't understand how somebody feels in a given situation.
Fanatic and pedantic adherence to creeds and credos always puts imagination on flight mode. Only then can such an inhuman act of murdering a couple in Quetta be perpetrated. To imagine is to put oneself into somebody else's shoes. Morality without imagination breeds dogmatism and extremism.
Imagination makes it easier to inculcate moral values in children. For example, if a child snatches or steals a classmate's pencil, instead of punishing him, he should be asked to imagine what pain and problem he would face if he were deprived of his own pencil. The first seed of empathy is sown in his fertile mental landscape.
To trigger the recessive imagination, the study of literature is essential, as it provides a 'vicarious social interaction' whereby we learn the unspoken rules of understanding other people. Visual media, particularly film, through its multimodal format, helps us identify with the characters and their emotions. PL Harris, in his book, The Work of the Imagination, writes that children don't just watch or read stories — they actively simulate and reenact them in the theatre of their minds. This practice builds up their imaginative muscle.
Imagination comes into play when, to be moral, we have to imagine the consequences of our decisions and actions. Absence of imagination makes us focus only on our world, our needs and our pains. Morality, contrarily, demands us to treat others considerately even though they are not like us. That's impossible without a little stretch of imagination.
In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the main character, Atticus Finch, tickles his daughter Scout's imagination and also lays the very foundation of moral understanding: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view — until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
Moral imagination never plays by the book. We have to go out of the way, riding on the flight of our imagination, to help a person in distress. The selfish part, the dumbest part of our mind, would lure us away from enjoying the ride. After a long period of recessiveness, our imagination forgets how to take flight, making us obtuse, insular and immune to all pricking and prodding of our inner voice.
To imagine is to feel. For instance, we know that kindness is a good act - that's our knowledge. Imagination helps us to feel how our kind act can put a smile on an anguished face. This very feeling starts a chain reaction of good acts — that's what morality demands and imagination aims at.