Empathy is the key to imagination and unlocking a deeper thinking into what we do not understand. It enables us to think about others feelings, and allows us to take on another role and train of thought. In “Necessary Edges: Arts, Empathy, and Education” Yo-Yo Ma says “Empathy and imagination, the artificial layering of different realities, are linked. Empathy is your capacity to imagine what someone is going through: what they are thinking, feeling, and perceiving” (Ma). The definition that Yo-Yo Ma gives for empathy clearly shows how it can lead to imagination. The way we have to put ourselves into other peoples shoes in order to picture how they are feeling and thinking is imagination in itself, but also by thinking in a new way it can inspire innovation. This innovation can be within yourself, or about the person. You may now realize and better understand the reason they act the way they do after imagining what it is like in their head. Imagination is the bridge and gateway to innovation.
Art will never be excepted into our cultures way of thinking, and be valued in a way that enables people to see it as beneficial in science. Our culture and the society we will in today was founded on putting reason and logic before emotion as Yo-Yo Ma says in his essay “Necessary Edges: Arts, Empathy, and Education” he stats that “the first Enlightenment – which posited the rule of reason over emotion and feelings (Ma).Since innovation first began, when we shifted from religious thinking to using reason and logic we no longer deemed emotion as important. What our culture see’s as beneficial is science and all aspects of logic. We have categorized the STEM fields and classes as being most important while saying that the arts are not a necessary part of life. This can be seen with the world wide cuts of art programs from schools. This is seen when we tell talented singers and dancers that they might want to pick a realistic career, because art is not a job. We have built a society that constantly downplays the importance of the arts and allows reason to rule far beyond emotion. We are able to feel emotion and think logically for a reason, to be able to further innovation through the understanding and recognition of both.
The link that you underscored between imagination and empathy was extremely interesting. I was also enthralled to read your second paragraph’s connection between Lehrer and a text-to-world connection. Keep those connections coming! 🙂