All power to the imagination
Sartre and Castoriadis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11340486 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gavin Rae (0000-0001-7330-840X, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 242-262 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophy & Social Criticism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0191-4537 • E-ISSN: 1461-734X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/01914537221145665 |
| OpenAlex | W4311963822 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 26 |
Despite Jean-Paul Sartre and Cornelius Castoriadis placing the imagination centre stage in their respective conceptual theories, little work has been done to bring them into conversation on this issue or, indeed, any other. This is perhaps not surprising given Sartre’s early work on this topic has tended to be downplayed in favour of his affirmation of freedom, while Castoriadis not only denigrates Sartre’s thinking generally and his account of the imagination specifically but also posits their relationship as one of opposition. In contrast, this article brings them into conversation on the question of the imagination to call into question Castoriadis assessment of their relation. To do so, I outline Sartre’s position in The Imaginary, showing that Castoriadis assessment of Sartre’s notion is based on a problematic, if common, misunderstanding of Sartre’s notion of nothingness and its relationship to creativity. Having overcome the opposition that Castoriadis affirms between their respective positions, I argue that, while there certainly are differences between their positions, there are also important points of agreement and overlap between them, especially regarding the constitutive role that the imagination plays for consciousness, and the relationships between the imagination and freedom and the imagination and creativity, that point to a shared and original approach
Binary opposition · Consciousness · Conversation · Creativity · Epistemology · Michel foucault · Nothing · Opposition (politics · Politics · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Relation (database · Sociology · The Imaginary · French Literature and Criticism · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre · Social Psychology
World in Fragments
The Imaginary
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination
Castoriadis's OntologyBeing and Creation
The Imaginary Institution of Society
The function of fiction in shaping reality
Intentionality
Ways of Imagining
Being and Nothingness
The Metaphorical Process as Cognition, Imagination, and Feeling
| Highly cited | No |
|---|