What is meant
Shahrur sees reason and knowledge as the two main intermediaries that turn imagination into reality. When imagination harmonizes with the laws of things and their objective structure, it can move from being merely a mental conception to action and achievement.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Movement of the argument: reason and knowledge turn imagination into reality.
- Central terms: reason, knowledge, imagination, reality, action.
- Degree of centrality: central.
This atom explains how a conception moves from a mental possibility to practical achievement, through the mediation of reason and knowledge, making the idea actionable in the realms of both science and human affairs.
Reading aids
Basis
- Supporting text: “He builds his thesis on the idea that reason and knowledge are the two main intermediaries for turning speech into action, and imagination into reality, whether in the natural sciences or in the human sciences.”
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is itself quoted word for word.
Its function in the book
Its function here is assertive; it establishes a result on which what follows depends in the progression of the argument.
Editorial note
The atom sets the condition for the transition from conception to realization.