⚘Branch thought from Homo phantasians – the human who dreams, makes things, and dreams some more
Abstractions are used to explain representations. They organise the representation that emerges in our minds through the perception of a particular reality. They constitute explanations and predictions, arranged through the formulation of concepts meant to give sense to elements of interest within that representation.
We revisit scenarios in our heads, we observe events and then we look at patterns —or other anchors or departure points, signs that some deeper principle is involved— and then we attempt to unravel them and freeze them into place as abstracted explanations. This is analysis.
Representations are then created from abstractions, so that they become more instantly evocative to the uninitiated: those who have not been taught what precise mental routes a particular abstraction indicates. To pull abstractions back to the ground, we locate metaphors that illustrate concepts, or we collect stories that give them life, substance, movement, and emotion in its concrete details.
Yet, representations are always up to interpretation. They are imprecise. They stand in contrast to abstractions, which are the product of systematic attempts to be precise. As a result, the metaphors, the images, dreams, and stories that we cobble together, and then carefully mould into shape, become new wellsprings of new abstractions. The cycle begins once more.
Thus thought and imagination remain together. One lets the seeds drop, the other firms the soil. They walk forward, leaving bounty in their wake.
“Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.”
Antonio Machado, 1912.