Was Einstein a fool when he said that "Imagination is more important than knowledge"?

[MathematicalPhysicist]

What do you think?

 

[mcastillo356]

Everybody has imagination (I do have too much, actually). Knowledge must be more important. Anyhow, the quote has to have a context, don't forget it.

 

[DrClaude]

For some context:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/01/einstein-imagination/

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

For some context:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/01/einstein-imagination/

Well his model in solid state is quite naive to say the least.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einst...instein solid is a,relaxed in the Debye model.

 

[hutchphd]

"Naive" is an interesting descriptor: lacking guile.
I find it apt, and not at all derogatory.

 

[jack action]

I'm on team imagination.

How would you gain knowledge in the first place without imagination? How would you even use knowledge without imagination?

 

[Jonathan Scott]

I'd say that knowledge can take everyone to the frontiers of science, but imagination is needed to move those frontiers forward.

 

[pinball1970]

I'd say that knowledge can take everyone to the frontiers of science, but imagination is needed to move those frontiers forward.

Einstein did a lot of brilliant stuff in his head, his Gedankenexperiment.
For people like him perhaps imagination is more important.

However he already did have a degree and was working on a doctorate when he was imagining all that great stuff in 1905.