To imagine is the characteristic act, not of the poet's mind, or the painter's, or the scientist's, but the mind of man." (Bronowski, p.1) Bronowski supports this idea by explaining how our species is unique from all others due to the incredible capacity of our memory. Moreover, all humans, regardless of background or profession, embrace this gift that unites us and makes us dissimilar from other creatures: "Of all the distinctions between man and animal, the characteristic gift which makes us human is the power to work with symbolic images: the gift of imagination." (Bronowski, p.2) Such an advantageous and essential trait that is exclusive to humans only, the imagination, is defined as being the invisible imagery and symbolizing activity in one's head: "I have described imagination as the ability to make images and to move them about inside one's head in new arrangements." (Bronowski, p.4) Bronowski defines the importance of the imagination to human beings and how it operates. Through his definition, he is able to detail the practice of imagination and emphasize its existence. .
Bronowski's goal is to examine the interconnection of science with human imagination and prove that human progress is made through a combination of the scientific method and imagination: "All great scientists have used their imagination freely Albert Einstein fiddled with imaginary experiments from boyhood and was wonderfully ignorant of the facts that they were supposed to bear on." (Bronowski, p.4) Bronowski suggests that imagination holds a strong connection with innovation in science through exposing the similarity in mental movements. Bronowski points out that, first, people perceive the idea or picture in their minds, and then create it. Bronowski explains in detail how the mind creates new concepts with imagination: "Yet seeing is also imagining. Galileo did challenge the authority of Aristotle But the eye that Galileo used was the mind's eye- (Bronowski, p.
