Can I not eat the vegetable and only eat the meat? No! Such dichotomies must exist in harmony without extreme polarity. Just like the debate in philosophy between the importance of imagination versus knowledge, a society cannot function with only one of the two. A world without imagination exists without advancement, while a world without knowledge advances foolishly. Although one may seem more important than another, the world requires both imagination and knowledge to function.
A world with pure imagination will sail into the future endless without knowing where it is headed. For example, the Salem Witch Trials was the result of great imagination. Between 1692 and 1693, voluminous suspicions existed among society started by a group of young girls including Abigail Williams and her cousin Betty. Friends doubted friends. Neighbors doubted neighbors. Families doubted families. With their imagination, people began picturing witches haunting each other and possessing people. Without knowledge, people began a series of executions and unfair trials known as the Salem Witch Trials. Any accusation resulted in execution, and all tests that proved innocence resulted in death. Imagining that witches exist bewitched the world. Through hypothesis backed by imagination instead of knowledge, the world was thrown into chaos. This event shows the importance of knowledge. The knowledge that ideas must be proven through the scientific method. Accusations and beliefs must be supported with concrete evidence, not mindless lies. If the people had decided to actually investigate the issue and think logically about the lack of evidence, many lives would have been spared. The Red Scare of of the 1919 and 1947 continues to show the danger of human imagination. Similar to Salem, trials and suspicion plagued the country. Led by McCarthy in the second scare, president Eisenhower was even accused. Humans cannot depend solely on imagination, but requires acceptance of our previous mistakes to advance further into the future instead of being borne back ceaselessly into the past.
A world without imagination will sail never. The invention of computers in the 1800s, the invention of the wheel in 3500 B.C., even the existence of many delicious foods exist today because of imagination. People like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates not only had knowledge of semiconductors, but they also held the great dream of one day simplifying work for all humans. They held to their imagination that a world of autonomous beings is possible, and as a result, billions of people across the world possess devices that contain gigabytes of information all in the size of a note card. Even farther back in history, the invention of the wheel occurred not because the inventor knew that wheels could exist, but that he believed something like the wheel would help mankind. When we were first born into this world, no one knew anything. No one knew that cow milk is edible until the first person who tried it. No one knew that the earth revolves around the sun until William Herschel and Friedrich Bessel discovered it. No one knew that matter existed smaller than atoms until 1897 when J. J. Thomson discovered electrons. It is through imagination that knowledge is generated. Imagination guides knowledge, and propels humanity forward into new eras. Imagination will be the source of energy advancing society into tomorrow.