Essay on the Creative Imagination

by Th. Ribot

INDEX.

Absent images, Association of, [94].
Abstraction, [15];
Late appearance of, [146].
Abulics, [11].
Activity, normal end of imagination, [11].
Adaptation of means to end, [264].
Advance plans in commerce, [288].
Adventure, Eras of, [287].
Affective states, Rôle of, [8].
Alcoholic liquors, [74].
Alembert, d', [87].
Alexander, [138], [142], [143].
Alfieri, [56].
Allen, [150].
Americans, change occupations, [257].
Analogy, [299];
Abuse of, [305];
based on qualitative resemblance, [26];
essential to creative imagination, [25];
not trustworthy in science, [27];
Rôle of, in primitive life, [125];
Thinking by, [117].
Anatomical conditions, [65].
Anger, [34].
Animal fancy, [97].
Animals, Association fibers or centers, lacking in, [100];
Discoveries of, [98];
Imagination in, [93], [94];
Usefulness of, to man, [274].
Animism, [107], [189];
of primitives, [123].
Anticipations of later inventions, [277].
Apollo, [50].
Apperception, Importance of, [16].
Apprehensio simplex, a logical figment, [110].
Arago, [145].
Aristotle, vi, [134], [141].
Art, Indefiniteness of modern, [203];
Realistic, [250];
Various theories of, [46].
Artificial motors, Use of, a late development, [275].
Aryan race, [129].
Association, [22], [23];
Forms of, [196];
Laws of, [23];
of ideas, [59], [353];
of ideas, Criticism of the term, [23];
of ideas, Discovery depends on, [250];
suggests cause, [261].
Associational systems, [67].
Astral influences, [261].
Asyllogistic deduction, [283].
Attention, [86].
Australians, [285].
Automatisms, [71].
Azam, [325].
Bach, [69], [214], [216].
Bacon, Roger, [245], [303] [n.]
Baillarger, Dr., [324].
Baldwin, [104].
Barter, [286].
Baudelaire, [39], [55].
Beethoven, [52], [71], [148], [218].
Bernard, Claude, [52];
idée directrice of, [250].
Binet, [340].
Bipartite division of the brain, [67].
Bismarck, [271].
Blood circulation, Importance of, [70].
Boehme, Jacob, [335].
Bonnal, [298] [n.]
Borgia, Lucretia, [139].
Bossuet, [225].
Boulogne, De, [283].
Bourdeau, L., [272].
Brain- development and abstraction, [100];
regions, Development of, [67];
weights, [66].
Bramwell, [343].
Breguet, [277].
Brown-Séquard, [77].
Buddha, Life of, [301].
Buffon, [52], [73].
Byron, [145].
Cabalists, [234].
Cabalistic mysticism, [226].
Cabanis, [78].
Campanella, [303].
Carlyle, [150], [186].
Carpenter, [284], [339].
Carthage, [282].
Categories of images, [16].
Causality, Search for, [260].
Charcot, [6].
Charlemagne, [138].
Chateaubriand, [76].
Chatterton, [145].
Cherubini, [145].
Child, Adult misinterpretation of, [104];
Creative imagination in the, [103] ff.;
Exaggeration of his intelligence, [115];
Oscillation of belief and doubt in the, [113];
Stages of development, [105].
Child-study, Difficulties of, [104].
Chopin, [52], [215].
Chorea, [101].
Cid, The, [140].
Classes of discoverers, [249].
Classification, [181].
Coleridge, [37].
Colored hearing, [38].
Columbus, Christopher, [89].
Commerce, Combative element in, [295].
Commercial imagination, Conditions of, [281];
development due to increasing substitution, [287];
development, Stages of, [285].
Common factor in comparison, [40].
Complementary scientists, [246].
Complete images impossible, [16].
Comte, [146].
Condillac, [243].
Confucius, [300].
Confusion of impressions, [18].
Conjecture, beginning of science, [245].
Conscious imagination, a special case, [58].
Constellation, [59], [126].
Constitutions by philosophers, [309].
Contiguity and resemblance, [24].
Contrapuntists, [214].
Contrast, Association by, [40].
Cooperation, [309];
of intellect and feeling, [43].
Copernicus, [246].
Counter-world, [304].
Creation hindered by complete redintegration, [22];
in physiological inhibition, [6];
Motor basis of, [258];
Physiological and imaginative, [76];
versus repetition, [5].
Creative imagination, a growth, [9];
Composite character of, [12];
conditioned by knowledge, [173];
either esthetic or practical, [44];
implies feeling, [32];
Neglect of, by writers on psychology, [vii];
Reasons for, [313].
Creative instinct, non-existent, [42].
Crisis, not essential, [58].
Critical stage of investigation, [252].
Cromwell, [144].
Cumulative inventions, [272].
Curiosity, [99];
of primitive man, [45], [131].
Cuvier, [183].
Daedalus, [269].
Dante, [205].
Darwin, [117], [346].
Dauriac, [350].
Deduction, Process of, [283].
Deffant, Madame du, [48].
Deities, Coalescence of, [200];
Momentary, [199];
Multiplicity of Roman, [125].
Delboef, [342].
DeQuincy, [55].
Descartes, [73], [294].
Determinism, Neglect of, by idealists, [303];
of art, [278];
of invention, [264].
Dewey, John, [132] [n.]
Dialectic, Hegelian, [254].
Diffluent imagination, [196] ff.
Dii minores, [269].
Disinterestedness of the artist, [35].
Dissociation, [15], [268];
by concomitant variations, [21];
of series, [19].
Double personality, [325].
Dreams, [38];
Emotional persistence of, [324].
Drugs, Effect of, [55];
Use of, as excitants, [70].
Dualism of Fourier, [306].
Dürer, [145].
Egypt, [135].
Egyptian conception of causality, [260].
Emotion, and sensation, [38];
material for imagination, [33];
presupposes unsatisfied needs, [32];
Realization of, [80].
Emotional abstraction, [196];
factor, [31] ff.
Empedocles, [136].
Epic, Rise of the, [138].
Essenes, [307].
Esthetic imagination,
contrasted to mechanical, [264];
Fixity of, [264].
Ethics, Living and dead, [302].
Euclid, [244], [245].
Eureka, Moment of, [247], [302].
Evolution of commerce, Law's statement of, [294].
Exact knowledge requisite in commerce, [289].
Expansion of self, [314].
Experience requisite for literary invention, [146].
External factors, [21].
Facts and general ideas, [252].
Faith, [112];
-cure, [6];
highest in semi-science, [241];
Rôle of, [7].
Fancy, [346];
in animals, [97];
Source of, [260].
Fear, [34].
Fenelon, [303].
Féré, [325], [340].
Fiduciary money, [286].
Fixed ideas, [88], [89].
Flechsig, [67], [68], [100], [103].
Flournoy, [38], [344].
Forel, [96].
Fouillée, [193].
Fourier, [304].
French, not strong in imagination, [193];
Revolution, [151].
Fresnel, [145].
Fromentin, [17].
Froschammer, [75], [346].
Fuegians, [285].
Gauss, [69], [183].
Gautier, Théophile, [55], [189], [190].
Gavarni, [187].
Generic image, [18].
Genius, and brain structure, [68];
depends on subliminal imagination, [57];
exceptional, [149];
No common measure of, [143].
Geniuses, of judgment, [142];
of mastery over men, and matter, [142].
Gilman, [219] [n.]
Gnostics, [234].
Goethe, [29], [149], [150], [216].
Gold, Curative powers of, [261].
Goncourt, [74].
Goya, [39], [206].
Greece, [282].
Greek republics, [151].
Grétry, [73].
Grillparzer, [85], [336].
Groos, [35], [47], [99], [227].
Guericke, Otto de, [276].
Habits, [22].
Hamilton, [19], [58], [60].
Handel, [145].
Hanseatic League, [287].
Harrington, [303].
Hartmann, [254], [346].
Haüy, [247].
Haydn, [145].
Hegel, [254], [346].
Heine, [306].
Hellenic imagination, anthropomorphic, [202].
Helmholtz, [20], [87], [142].
Henry IV, [139].
Hephæstos, [269].
Hercules, [137].
Hero, [270].
Herodotus, [260].
Hesiod, [130].
Hindoo imagination, symbolic, [202].
Hindoos, [128].
Hodgson, [35].
Höffding, [41].
Hoffman, [39], [206].
Homo duplex, [43].
Homonomy, [120].
Howe, [60] [n.]
Huber, [96].
Hugo, Victor, [188], [189], [216], [229];
Animism in, [189].
Human force, beginning of invention, [273].
Hume, [111].
Huyghens, [270].
Hyperæmia, [70].
Hyperesthesia, Temporary, [74].
Hypermnesia, [54].
Hypothesis, [251];
Progressive, [244].
Icarus, [269].
Idea and emotion, Equivalence of, [80].
Ideal modified in practice, [306].
Idealistic conceptions, [300].
Idealization, Process of, [38].
Illusion, [107];
and legend, [137];
Conscious, of mystic, [228].
Illusions, valuable to scientist, [251].
Image, Modification of, [18], [291].
Images, [80];
abbreviations of reality, [232];
Categories of, [16];
Concrete, [222];
provoked, [188];
sketched type, [81];
Symbolic, [222];
Visual, provoked by music, [217].
Imagination, and abulia, [11];
and foresight, [284];
anthropocentric, [10];
basis of the cosmic process, [75];
Commercial, [281];
complete in animals, [95];
condensed in common objects, [276];
Conditions of, [44];
Development of, [167] ff.;
Diffluent, [196] ff.;
Esthetic, [264];
fixed form, [318];
in animals, [93];
in experimentation, [248];
in primitive man, [118];
Mechanical and technical, [257];
Motives of different sorts of, [251];
Musical, [212] ff., [350];
Mystic, [221] ff.;
Mystical, different from religious, [231];
not opposed to the useful, [263];
Numerical, [207] ff.;
Periods of development of, [144];
Plastic, [184] ff.;
Poetical, [267];
Practical, [256] ff.;
present in all activities, [viii];
Quality of, same in many lives, [265];
Scientific, [236] ff.;
sketched form, [316];
substitute for reason, [29];
Varieties of, [180].
Imaginative type, [320].
Imitation, through pleasure, [98].
Imitative music, [214].
Impersonality, [52], [86].
Incomplete images, [18].
Incubation, Periods of, [278].
Individual variations, [179].
Individuality of genius, [149].
Inductive reasoning, [132].
Infantile insanity, [101].
Inhibition by representation, [6].
Initial moment of discovery, [276].
Inspiration, [50], [85];
and intoxication, [55];
Characteristic of, [57];
characterized by suddenness and impersonality, [51];
resembles somnambulism, [56];
Subjective feeling of, untrustworthy, [59].
Instinct, [75];
answer to specific needs, [42];
Creative, [313];

Resemblance of invention to, [48].
Intellectual factor, [15].
Intuition, [282], [285].
Introspectors, [321].
Intentional combination of images, [95].
Interest, a factor in creation, [82].
Interesting, defined, [36].
Invention arises to satisfy a need, [271];
Higher forms of, [140] ff.;
in morals, [300];
in successive parts, [296];
of monopolies, [282];
Pain of, [51];
Spontaneity of, [51];
subjected to tradition, [269].
Inventions, Amplifiers of, [270];
largely anonymous, [275];
Mechanical, neglected by psychologists, [263];
Stratification of, [272].
Inventors deified, [269];
Oddities of, [72].
James, William, [21], [25], [37], [83], [112].
Janet, [340].
Jealousy, stimulates imagination, [34].
Jordæns, [145].
Joy, [34].
Kant, [248].
Kepler, [246], [247].
Klopstock, [215].
Kühn, [129].
Lagrange, [71].
Lamennais, [73].
Lang, [128], [261].
Language, Origin of, [120].
Laplace, [250].
Larvated epilepsy, [141].
Lavoisier, [246].
Law, [294].
Lazarus, [47].
Leibniz, [73], [74], [146], [253], [296] [n.]
Lélut, [141].
Leurechon, [277].
Liebig, [244].
Linnæus, [183].
Literal mysticism, [226].
Localization, [65].
Loch Lomond, [58].
Locke, [309].
Lombroso, [141], [142].
Louis XIV, [150].
Love, [34];
and hate, [134].
Love-plays, [99].
Machiavelli, [73].
Machines, counterfeits of human beings, [279].
Man and animals, Specific quality of, [273].
Manu, [300].
Mastery, Spirit of, [114].
Materials of imagination, [299].
Maury, A., [6] [n.]
Mechanic and poet, [279].
Mechanical aptitude, [145].
Mechanical imagination, Ideal of, [268].
Mediate association, [59].
Memory, Predominant tendencies in, [61];
untrustworthy, [17].
Men, Great, as makers of history, [150].
Mendelssohn, [145], [213] [n.], [215], [216].
Mental chemistry, [82].
Merchant sailors, [282].
Metamorphosis, [28];
of deities, [129];
Regressive, [171].
Metaphysical speculation, [251];
thought, Stages of, [252].
Metaphysics, [252] ff.
Methods of invention, [243].
Meynert, [100].
Michaelangelo, [145], [148], [149].
Michelet, [186], [306].
Middle Ages, predominantly imaginative, [174].
Military invention, [295];
Conditions of, [297].
Mill, John Stuart, [82], [284].
Milton, [73].
Mimicry, [98].
Mind, Varieties of, [320].
Mission, Consciousness of, [148].
Misunderstanding of the new, [151].
Mobility of inventors, [258].
Monadology, [253].
Money, Invention of, [286];
sought as an end, [289].
Monge, [237].
Moses, [300].
More, [303], [309].
Morgan, Lloyd, [99].
Mormons, [307].
Monoideism, [87].
Montgolfier, [277].
Moral geniuses, [301].
Moravian brotherhood, [307].
Mosso, [71], [340].
Motor elements in all representation, [4];
elements, Rôle of, [7];
manifestation basis of creation, [9].
Movements, Importance of, in imagination, [3].
Mozart, [73], [145].
Müller, Max, [120], [129], [130].
Mummy powder, [261].
Münsterberg, [60].
Muses, [50].
Music an emotional language, [220];
Precocity in, [144].
Musical imagination, [212], [350].
Musset, Alfred de, [335].
Myers, [342].
Mystic imagination, [221] ff., [335].
Mystics, Abuse of allegory, by, [225];
Belief of, [227];
Metaphorical style of, [224].
Mysticism by suggestion, [229].
Myth, defined, [123];
Depersonification of, [133];
in Plato, [134];
in science, [134];
Subjective and objective factors in, [122].
Myths, Significance of, [119];
Variations in, [127].
Myth-making activity, [viii], [331].
Napoleon, [10], [66], [71], [142];
his war practice, [298].
Natural, and human phenomena, [299];
law, Uniformity of, opposed to dissociation, [21];
motors, Use of, [275].
Naville, [245].
Need of knowing, [314].
Neglect of details in sensation, [20].
Nerval, Gérard de, [229], [324].
Nervous overflow, [71].
New Larnak, [309].
Newbold, [340].
Newcomen, [270].
Newton, [58], [87], [146].
Nietzsche, [150].
Nomina Numina, [120], [262].
Nordau, [142].
Numerical imagination, [207] ff.;
mysticism, [226];
series unlimited, [207].
Objective study of inventors, [71].
Oddities of inventors, [72].
Oelzelt-Newin, [33], [95].
Old age, Effect of, on imagination, [77].
Organic conditions, [65].
Orientation conditioned by individual organization, [48];
Personal, [270].
Owen, Robert, [309].
Paradox of belief, [242].
Paralysis by ideas, [6].
Pascal, [146], [244].
Pasteur, [142], [143], [251].
Pathological view of genius, [141].
Pathology and physiology, [74].
Perception, [15];
and conception, [184];
and imagination, [106].
Perez, B., [115].
Persistence of ideas due to feeling, [79].
Personification, [186];
characteristic of aborigines and children, [27];
source of myth, [28].
Phalanges, Organization of society into, [305].
Philippe, J., [17] [n.]
Philosophy, a transformation of mystic ideas, [233].
Phlogiston, [248].
Physiological states, [70].
Physiology and pathology, [74].
Plastic art and mythology, [191];
imagination, [184] f.
Plato, [134], [303], [309].
Platonic ideas, [81], [253].
Play, [47], [97];
Uses of, for man, [114].
Plotinus, [234].
Poe, [39], [206], [324].
Poet, a workman, [190].
Poetical imagination, general characters, [267];
Inspiration in, [268];
special characters, [270].
Poetical invention, Stages of, [266].
Polyideism, [87].
Polynomy, [120].
Poncelet, [143].
Positive minds, [318].
Powers of nature, Exploitation of [271].
Practical imagination, Ubiquity of, [254].
Practice, essential in motor creation, [186].
Precocity, [144];
in poetry, [145];
of mathematicians, [147].
Pre-Raphaelites, [204].
Preyer, [117].
Primitive man, [45];
and myth, [118] ff.
Principle of unity, [250].
Progressive stages of imagination, [84].
Prometheus, [269].
Provoked revival, [94].
Pseudo-science, [240].
Psychic atoms, [19];
paralysis, [6].
Psychological regressions, [248].
Puberty, Influence of, on imagination, [76].
Pythagoras, [226], [246].
Pythagoreans, [134].
Qualities, Attribution of, to objects, [124].
Raphael, [145].
Rational Metaphysics, [234].
Reason, Objectivity of, [10].
Reciprocal working of scientific and practical discoveries, [249].
Recuperative theory of play, [97].
Redintegration, Law of, [19];
Total, [36].
Regis, [54].
Religion, Universality of, [128].
Renaissance, [151], [175].
Reni, Guido, [73].
Repetition versus creation, [5], [23].
Representation and belief inseparable, [110].
Representations, Interchange of, [323];
Number of, [322].
Revery, [38], [198], [316].
Reymond, Du Bois, [52].
Reynolds, [6], [325].
Roland, [138].
Roman Republic, [151].
Romans, [125].
Romanes, [94], [95], [96].
Romantic invention, [115].
Röntgen, [142].
Rossini, [73].
Rousseau, [309].
Rubens, [145].
Rüdinger, [69].
Saint-Simonism, [309].
Sand, George, [52], [215].
Satanic literature, [206].
Schelling, [253].
Schematic images, [18], [291].
Schiller, [47], [72], [73], [145].
Schopenhauer, [37], [149], [150], [253], [346].
Schubert, [145].
Schumann, [215].
Science, [45];
Conjecture beginning of, [245];
prescribes conditions and limits to imagination, [236];
Three movements in growth of, [239].
Scientific imagination, [236] ff.
Scripture, [60].
Self-feeling, [35].
Semi-science, [240].
Seneca, [141].
Sensation changed in memory, [17].
Sensorial insanity, [101].
Sexual instinct, [314].
Shakers, [307].
Shakespeare, [143], [186].
Shelly, [56].
Social aims in finance, [294];
invention, limited by the past, [308];
wants, [314].
Socialism, Utopian and scientific, [310].
Societies for special ends, [307].
Sorrow, [34].
Special modes of scientific imagining, [237].
Specific, not general imagination, [179].
Spencer, [47], [131], [150].
Spinoza, [110], [143], [254].
Spirits, Belief in, [51].
Spontaneity, [296].
Spontaneous revival, [94], [315].
Spontaneous variations, [140].
Stages of passage from percept to concept, [292].
Stallo, [134].
State credit, Law's system of, [294].
Stewart, Dugald, [111].
Stigmata, etc., unprecedented in individual's experience, [7].
Stigmatized individuals, [6].
Subjective factors, [20].
Subliminal imagination, [57].
Sully, [21].
Summa, [254].
Summary, [330].
Superstition and religion, [259].
Symbolism of Hindoos, [202].
Taine, [18], [111], [117], [129], [150], [200].
Teleological character of will and imagination, [10].
Thales, [134].
Titchener, [83].
Tolstoi, [151].
Tools, [274].
Tours, Moreau de, [55], [78], [141].
Triptolemus, [269].
Tropisms, [75].
Tycho-Brahé, [73], [246], [270].
Tylor, [99], [123], [125], [131], [139].
Tyndall, [238].
Tyre, [282].
Unconscious, Nature of the, [339];
physiological theory, [340], [341].
Unconscious cerebration, [53];
factor, [50] ff.;
factor, not a distinct element in invention, [64].
Units of exchange, [286].
Unity, Principle of, [79].
Universale post rem, [84].
Utopias, based on author's milieu, [303].
Utopian imagination, [299].
Utopians, indifferent to realization, [309].
Van Dyck, [145].
Vaucanson, [48].
Vedic epoch, [129].
Vesication, [5], [7].
Vicavakarma, [269].
Vico, [174].
Vignoli, [128].
Vinci, Leonardo da, [58], [149].
Vis a fronte and a tergo, [11].
Vocation, Change of, [172];
Choice of, [144].
Voltaire, [150].
Voluntary activity analogous to creative imagination, [9].
Von Baer, [210].
Von Hartmann, [224].
Wagner, [145].
Wahle, [62].
Wallace, [96], [99].
Wallaschek, [99].
Watch, Evolution of the, [270].
Watt, James, [66], [244],

[270].
Wealth, desired from artistic motives, [290].
Weber, E. F., [5], [145], [216].
Weismann, [148].
Wernicke, [100].
Wiertz, [39], [206].
Will, The broad meaning of, [112];
a coordinating function, [9];
Effect of, on physiological functioning, [5].
Words, Rôle of, [96].
Wundt, [24], [40], [182].
Zeller, [226].
Ziehen, [61], [62].
Zoroaster, [300].

Transcriber's Notes:

Page [23]: [Fn. 8]: Phychology amended to Psychology

Page [25]: Missing footnote marker in original. Added footnote marker after James quote.

Page [35]: casual amended to causal

Page [38]: haphazard amended to haphazardly; grouping amended to groupings

Page [39]: subejct amended to subject

Page [54]: vender sic

Page [56]: "Under the influence of alcoholic drinks and of poisonous intoxicants attention and will always fall into exhaustion." sic Possibly the word "does" or similar is missing before "and," or "and" is superfluous.

Page [55]: subtances amended to substances

Page [75]: images amended to image

Page [84]: unisersale amended to universale

Page [85]: The following lines transposed: "which, for the time being, should represent the" and "all the forces and capacities upon a single point"

Page [123]: fill amended to fills

Page [151]: duplicate "the" removed ("the the deep working of the masses")

Page [155]: Section II amended to IV

Page [163]: Section III amended to V

Page [193]: Saxin amended to Saxon

Page [200]: everyone amended to every one

Page [208]: apalling amended to appalling

Page [213]: Missing footnote marker in original. Added footnote marker after last paragraph on page.

Page [226]: caballists amended to cabalists

Page [229]: plant and tree amended to plants and trees

Page [236]: In Chapter IV, "The Scientific Imagination," there are sections II, III, IV and V, but no section I.

Page [250]: dyssymetry amended to dyssymmetry

Page [280]: Missing footnote marker in original. Added footnote marker after "... inorganic life."

Page [286]: [Fn. 132]: Evolution amended to Évolution

Page [292]: acording amended to according

Page [294]: managable amended to manageable

Page [297]: opoprtune amended to opportune

Page [319]: or amended to of ("the double of savages")

Page [321]: quintescence amended to quintessence

Page [338]: Footnote marker and number added to note on page. Footnote marker added at end of first paragraph.

Page [348]: quivalent amended to equivalent

Page [351]: l'Opera amended to l'Opéra

Page [365]: Lammennais amended to Lamennais

Page [365]: Michelangelo amended to Michaelangelo

Part II, Chapter II: The chapter heading in the [table of contents] differs from that shown on page [102]. Left as is.

Accented letters, italicisation and the punctuation of abbreviations have been standardised.

Where a word is spelt differently and there is an equal number of instances, the variant spellings have been left as is: Hephaestos/Hephæstos; Jordaens/Jordæns; Linnaeus/Linnæus.