Active Observation And Passive Observation

We must start by first describing passive observation and active experiment. Passive observation is when one observes a situation without interference, and then analyses and makes assumptions based on the information collected. However in some fields such as Mathematics, there needs to be active observation because in topics like ‘Principles of mathematical induction’, inductive reasoning is required to come upon a conclusion which is entirely based on actively observing trends and patterns. Active experiment is a more controlled technique where one can interfere and extract results from a subject as per the requirements. A passive experiment is nothing more than an observation because it outlines extracting information without any interference
The spark for imagination stems from the subconscious where a person’s observations of the world and experiment on its subjects are stored. Imagination is not the creation of new knowledge, but rather a filter or a concentrator for the knowledge that already exists. A famous example of that would be Archimedes when he ‘imagined’ an experiment for the King to test whether the gold returned from the goldsmith was entirely pure or not. Although Archimedes did derive the experiment from his imagination, this was only because of his observation that the water level in the tub increased due to him stepping in the bath. If he didn’t observe that, it wouldn’t have led him to relate it to the problem at hand hence he wouldn’t have created new knowledge. Another corroboration would be that the idea for ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ was derived from Roald Dahl’s experiences with Cadbury using his boarding school to test new products. The idea must have come to him in a flash but he didn’t produce the idea, he was merely reminded of it through his observations. Therefore in these cases, imagination is just a subclass of observation and experiment and it does not produce knowledge
The emotion only arises because of observation and experiment and although it does produce knowledge, it would not be able to without the two aforementioned ways. For example, if Ratan Tata hadn’t observed the family on the bike, there would be no emotion created and subsequently, no knowledge created. Similarly, if I hadn’t observed the families in abject poverty, it would have never giving me the push to spread awareness of rural poverty hence making that particular knowledge non-existent. Moreover, not only is observation the spark of the emotion generated, but it also shapes the type of emotion experienced in conjunction to some event. Previous experiences of a human, their observations or experiments that have been done on/by them, are key to shaping the emotions that are evoked in response to a situation. A jihadist would be nonchalant and indifferent in seeing someone die in front of him because of the number of times he’s observed it before; however a businessman civilian who’s not seen someone dying in front of him before is more likely to experience shock and the impact will be greater. Therefore even in this case, the past observations and experiments of a person is what frames the emotion evoked which in turn creates