166 – You, your language and your material
Government in the category ‘speculations concerning forms of government’, declaring that ‘speculative thought is one of the chief elements
of social power’. The charge to avoid is not ‘mere speculation’ but
‘idle speculation’.
Imagine
Most worthwhile knowledge is achieved by what the scientist Jacob
Bronowski has called ‘a creative leap of the imagination’ rather than
by a set of discovery procedures. What was necessary for Einstein
is necessary for us. The ability to imagine ‘possible worlds’ is a necessary accomplishment in many disciplines: for example, by trying
to imagine what is not the case, what could not be the case, or what
might be the case, we are led to appreciate more clearly what is the
case. Even historians – with their traditional distaste for historical
‘ifs’ – have tried to assess the economic significance of the spread of
the railroads in nineteenth-century America by imagining what the
economy would have been like without them. Like speculations and
conjectures, only vacant and idle imaginings are to be rejected.
Wish, hope
No attitude to one’s material can be founded only on wishes or hopes.
Consequently, these verbs will more commonly be used in combination with others conveying a sense of certainty or assertion, for
example ‘I hope to demonstrate that . . . ’, ‘I wish to acknowledge
that . . . ’.
Government in the category ‘speculations concerning forms of government’, declaring that ‘speculative thought is one of the chief elements
of social power’. The charge to avoid is not ‘mere speculation’ but
‘idle speculation’.
Imagine
Most worthwhile knowledge is achieved by what the scientist Jacob
Bronowski has called ‘a creative leap of the imagination’ rather than
by a set of discovery procedures. What was necessary for Einstein
is necessary for us. The ability to imagine ‘possible worlds’ is a necessary accomplishment in many disciplines: for example, by trying
to imagine what is not the case, what could not be the case, or what
might be the case, we are led to appreciate more clearly what is the
case. Even historians – with their traditional distaste for historical
‘ifs’ – have tried to assess the economic significance of the spread of
the railroads in nineteenth-century America by imagining what the
economy would have been like without them. Like speculations and
conjectures, only vacant and idle imaginings are to be rejected.
Wish, hope
No attitude to one’s material can be founded only on wishes or hopes.
Consequently, these verbs will more commonly be used in combination with others conveying a sense of certainty or assertion, for
example ‘I hope to demonstrate that . . . ’, ‘I wish to acknowledge
that . . . ’.