Is Imagination Constrained Enough for Science?

The imagination is a necessary tool for doing science, because it allows scientists to form hypotheses, make predictions about the future, and consider non-actual possibilities. But some have worried that the imagination is too unconstrained to be used in the service of scientific inquiry, which needs to be tied closely to reality. This chapter reviews these arguments and provides empirical evidence that the imagination is constrained enough for science. Both children and adults base their imagined worlds on the real world, and these worlds rarely stray from the causal structure of reality. And although the imagination may be subject to some biases that make certain kinds of worlds easier to imagine, these biases can be identified and corrected through training and enculturation in science. Finally, the conclusions drawn within an imagined context can be brought to bear appropriately on reality, allowing the results of thought experiments and hypothetical scenarios to inform the practice of science.