0434047 - FLÚ 2016 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Dufourcq, Annabelle
The Fundamental Imaginary Dimension of the Real in Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy.
Research in Phenomenology. Roč. 45, č. 1 (2015), s. 33-52. ISSN 0085-5553. E-ISSN 1569-1640
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : imagination * reality * realism * ontology * phenomenology * Husserl * Merleau-Ponty
Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15691640-12341301

The common opposition between the imaginary and the real prevents us from genuinely understanding either one. Indeed, the imaginary embodies a certain intuitive presence of the thing and not an empty signitive intention. Moreover it is able to compete with perception and even to offer an increased presence, a sur-real display, of the things, as shown by Merleau-Ponty's analyses of art in Eye and Mind. As a result, we have to overcome the conception according to which the imaginary field is a mere figment of my imagination, a mental entity that I could still possess in the very absence of its object. On the other hand, the presence of reality is never complete or solid: 'The transcendence of the far-off encroaches upon my present and brings a hint of unreality even into the experiences with which I believe myself to coincide.' Therefore, first, the imaginary (initially regarded as a peculiar field constituted by specific phenomena such as artworks, fantasies, pictures, dreams, and so forth) has to be redefined as a special hovering modality of the presence of the beings themselves.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0241912