Getting it Together: C. S. Lewis and the Two Hemispheres of Knowing

Abstract

C. S. Lewis's undated poem about the polarity between reason and imagination and our need for their independence and synthesis in ascertaining truth correlates neatly with today's knowledge of the polarity of left-hemisphere and right-hemisphere functions of the brain and our obvious need for balance and synthesis there too. In his poem Lewis personified reason and imagination with two figures from Classical mythology. His first prose fiction and his last prose fiction also deal with aspects of this polarity. Although Lewis never wrote about brain physiology per se, he did write about the relationship of the physical brain to the transcendent mind.