When Perception and Imagination Compete

The Imaginary

This flow traces the conflict between perception’s open-ended encounter with objects and imagination’s knowledge-guided presentation of absent objects.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Perceived Cube The Perceived Cube from "The Imaginary". Learning Through Profiles An object with more to show Sartre’s cube example establishes perception as an unfolding encounter.

The Perceived Cube from "The Imaginary". Learning Through Profiles An object with more to show Sartre’s cube example establishes perception as an unfolding encounter.

Learning Through Profiles An object with more to show Sartre’s cube example establishes perception as an unfolding encounter. Only some faces appear at a time, and movement or continued observation may reveal features not yet known. The perceived object exceeds the observer’s present view and sustains relations beyond what is immediately visible. A different kind of certainty Perception can be corrected by further experience. Its openness gives it richness but also leaves particular judgements provisional.

The Imagined Cube The Imagined Cube from "The Imaginary". Knowing Before Seeing Knowledge leads A cube imagined as a cube is already intended through knowledge of what a cube is.

The Imagined Cube from "The Imaginary". Knowing Before Seeing Knowledge leads A cube imagined as a cube is already intended through knowledge of what a cube is.

Knowing Before Seeing Knowledge leads A cube imagined as a cube is already intended through knowledge of what a cube is. The image may present a profile, but it cannot reveal an unexpected face or teach the observer its defining structure. Sartre calls this a quasi-observation: the stance resembles looking, yet the image delivers only what consciousness has put into it. A different poverty Where perception overflows, the image remains limited to the determinations intended. The contrast is qualitative, not a simple difference in vividness.

The Two Attitudes Separate The Two Attitudes Separate from "The Imaginary". A Conflict of Orientation No blended perception Sartre rejects the idea that images fill gaps inside perception.

The Two Attitudes Separate from "The Imaginary". A Conflict of Orientation No blended perception Sartre rejects the idea that images fill gaps inside perception.

A Conflict of Orientation No blended perception Sartre rejects the idea that images fill gaps inside perception. Perception and imagination are distinct attitudes that cannot function as two interchangeable ingredients in a single experience. When the imagining act takes over, the perceived object can recede rather than being supplemented by an inner picture. A revised explanation Perception can include unspoken expectations about unseen aspects, but these are not images. To imagine a hidden feature explicitly is to leave the perceptual attitude and form a new act.

Early in Part I, Chapter 1, Section III

Immediately after the perceived cube comparison

During Part III’s account of perception and image