Brain Food #437
Experiencing the world through imagining it
Daily Brain Food.
Thoughts of the day
Transcendental philosophy is based on the premise that our mind can constitute objects that we are not experiencing directly, and thus expand our knowledge and understanding of them. The self becomes an agent of worldly experience, and through our very own selves we have the ability to conjure ideas, stories and even new experiences.
Similarly, we rely on our imagination to learn, to escape, to help us fill our thoughts with better days to come.
This week, I will be sharing some thoughts on imagination, alongside works of art that can help us transcend our current reality.
“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
— Oscar Wilde
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh was painted from the asylum, after the artist woke up one early morning and, as he reported to his brother, spotted a bright star in the sky: "This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big." This inspired him to make the painting. The rest of the elements in it, like the church spire or the hamlet, were all added by the artist, as he imagined them to be there.
