The Imaginary - More Information

''We may therefore conclude that imagination is not an empirical power added to consciousness, but it is the whole of consciousness as it realizes its freedom.'' - Jean-Paul Sartre.

Sartre''s L''Imaginaire was first published in French in 1940 and in English in 1948. This new translation, the first for over fifty years, is of the recent French edition revised by Arlette Elkaim-Sartre. It corrects many important mistakes in the earlier English translation and includes a new introduction by Jonathan Webber, placing the book in a contemporary context.

The Imaginary is one of Sartre''s most important works and an ideal introduction to his thought. It is a brilliant and lucid examination of one supposedly simple human act: the act of imagining something. Sartre''s genius is to show that between this act and the world that imagination creates, lies nothing less than a new theory of of human consciousness. The book contains Sartre''s devastating criticisms of scientific psychology and he presents, for the first time, the radical theories of consciousness and human freedom that were to appear a few years later in his magnum opus, Being and Nothingness. Considering the role of the imagination and the emotions, such as disgust, Sartre argues that it is because human beings can imagine or think of things as they are not, that they are ultimately free.

The Imaginary is essential reading for anyone interested in Sartre, exitentialism, phenomenology, twentieth century philosophy and philosophy of mind.

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Table of contents : Notes on the Translation Part One: The Certain The Intentional Structure of the Image I. Description 1. The Method 2. First Characteristic: The Image is a Consciousness 3. Second Characteristic: The Phenomenon of Quasi-Observation 4. Third Characteristic: The Imaging Consciousness Posits its Object as a Nothingness 5. Fourth Characteristic: Spontaneity 6. Conclusion II. The Image Family 1. Image, Portrait, Caricature 2. Sign and Portrait 3. From Sign to Image: Consciousness of Imitations 4. From Sign to Image: Schematic Drawings 5. Faces in the Fire, Spots on Walls, Rocks in Human Form 6. Hypnagogic Images, Scenes and Persons Seen in Coffee Grounds, in a Crystal Ball 7. From Portrait to Mental Image 8. Mental Image Part Two: The Probable Nature of the Analogon in the Mental Image 1. Knowledge 2. Affectivity 3. Movements 4. The Role of the Word in the Mental Image 5. The Mode of Appearance of a Thing in the Mental Image Part Three: The Role of the Image in Psychic Life 1. The Symbol 2. Symbolic Schemas and Illustrations of Thought 3. Image and Thought 4. Image and Perception Part Four: The Imaginary Life 1. The Irreal Object 2. Conduct in the face of the Irreal 3. Pathology of the Imagination 4. The Dream Conclusion 1. Consciousness and Imagination 2. The Work of Art Notes