The goals of functional programming are to abstract away as much detail of the calculation as possible where as the goals of imperative programming seem to be providing a lot of transparency as to how the problem will be calculated. If you get away from being in one camp or the other you'll actually see that the two camps are moving closer together. Personally, I think the best example of this is C# (an imperative language with functional extensions) and F# (a functional language with imperative extensions).
Sometimes I really want to specify that a calculation must take place via a certain method (lets say newton's method and the performance improvements that are possible with certain hacks) and sometimes I don't care (such as partial application of a function).
The best situation is to put both tools in the hands of a programmer and let them decide what to do. Neither the functional nor imperative camps are 'right' but there are a lot of good ideas in both camps.
Sometimes I really want to specify that a calculation must take place via a certain method (lets say newton's method and the performance improvements that are possible with certain hacks) and sometimes I don't care (such as partial application of a function).
The best situation is to put both tools in the hands of a programmer and let them decide what to do. Neither the functional nor imperative camps are 'right' but there are a lot of good ideas in both camps.