Freedom as the Power to Negate

The Imaginary

This flow traces Sartre’s movement from the image’s absence to the conclusion that imagination expresses consciousness’s freedom to surpass the given.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Image Contains Negation The Image Contains Negation from "The Imaginary". Absence Is Constitutive Not an added judgement Sartre argues that imaging consciousness does not first perceive an object and then remove it from reality.

The Image Contains Negation from "The Imaginary". Absence Is Constitutive Not an added judgement Sartre argues that imaging consciousness does not first perceive an object and then remove it from reality.

Absence Is Constitutive Not an added judgement Sartre argues that imaging consciousness does not first perceive an object and then remove it from reality. Its object is intended from the outset through absence, nonexistence, elsewhere, or a neutralized stance. The imagined object’s nothingness is therefore part of the act’s structure. A basic distinction Perception presents a thing as existing here; imagination can intend an object while denying its presentness. This difference grounds Sartre’s later account of imagination and freedom.

The World Becomes a Ground The World Becomes a Ground from "The Imaginary". Negation Requires a World The real as a whole To imagine an absent object, consciousness must in some way grasp the real as a world.

The World Becomes a Ground from "The Imaginary". Negation Requires a World The real as a whole To imagine an absent object, consciousness must in some way grasp the real as a world.

Negation Requires a World The real as a whole To imagine an absent object, consciousness must in some way grasp the real as a world. The imagined object stands out against that background as something the current situation does not contain. Negation does not erase reality altogether; it depends on the world it surpasses. Situation gives direction The particular situation helps determine what is imagined. The same ability to exceed the given can produce different images depending on what is lacking, desired, or excluded.

Imagination Reveals Freedom Imagination Reveals Freedom from "The Imaginary". Consciousness Surpasses the Given Freedom in operation Sartre concludes that imagining is not merely an empirical ability added to consciousness.

Imagination Reveals Freedom from "The Imaginary". Consciousness Surpasses the Given Freedom in operation Sartre concludes that imagining is not merely an empirical ability added to consciousness.

Consciousness Surpasses the Given Freedom in operation Sartre concludes that imagining is not merely an empirical ability added to consciousness. It makes visible the freedom by which consciousness can distance itself from what is present and project what is absent. This capacity does not guarantee that every imagined possibility will become action, but it shows that the given does not exhaust consciousness. The book’s final claim Imagination becomes both a psychological function and a condition for human freedom in the world. The argument returns to the opening analysis with a wider existential meaning.

Part I, Chapter 1, Section IV

Middle of the Conclusion

Final paragraphs of the Conclusion