{"id":8337,"date":"2013-11-25T16:25:49","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T16:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/11\/25\/imagining-x-as-real-versus-imagining-x-as-unreal-and-a-puzzle-of-actualization\/"},"modified":"2013-11-25T16:25:49","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T16:25:49","slug":"imagining-x-as-real-versus-imagining-x-as-unreal-and-a-puzzle-of-actualization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/11\/25\/imagining-x-as-real-versus-imagining-x-as-unreal-and-a-puzzle-of-actualization\/","title":{"rendered":"Imagining X as Real versus Imagining X as Unreal and a Puzzle of Actualization"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter and I discussed the following over Sunday breakfast.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suppose I want a table, but there is no existing table that I want: I want a  table with special features that no existing table possesses.  So I decide to build a table with these features.  My planning involves imagining a table having certain properties.  It is rectangular, but not square, etc.  How does this differ from imagining a table that I describe  in a work of fiction?  Suppose the two tables have all the same properties.  We also assume that the properties form a logically consistent set.  What is the difference between imagining a table I intend to build and imagining a table that I do not intend to build but intend merely to describe as part of the fictional furniture in a short story?<\/span><\/p>\n

In the first case I imagine the table as real; in the second as fictional. Note that to imagine a table as real is not the same as imagining a real table, though that too occurs.  Suppose I remember seeing Peter's nondescript writing  table.  To remember a table is not to imagine one; nonetheless I can imagine refurbishing Peter's table by stripping it, sanding it, and refinishing it.  The imagined result of those operations is not a purely imagined object, any more than a piece of fiction I write in which Peter's table makes an appearance features a purely fictional table.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two tables I am concerned with, however are both nonexistent. In both cases there is a merely intentional object before my mind.  And in both cases the constitutive properties are the same.  Moreover, the two are categorially the same: both are physical objects, and more specifically artifacts. Obviously, when I imagine a table, I am not imagining a nonphysical object or a natural physical object like a tree.  So there is a clear sense in which  what I am imagining is in both cases a physical object, albeit a nonexistent\/not-yet-existent physical object.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what distinguishes the two objects?  Roman Ingarden maintains that they differ in "ontic character."  In the first case, the ontic character is intended as real<\/em>.  In the second, intended as fictional<\/em>.  (The Literary Work of Art<\/em>, p. 119). <\/span><\/p>\n

Now I have already argued that purely fictional objects are impossible objects: they cannot be actualized, even if the constitutive properties form a logically consistent set.  We can now say that the broadly logical impossibility of purely fictional objects is grounded in their ontic character of being intended as fictional.   The table imagined as real, however, is possible due to its ontic character of being intended as real despite being otherwise indistinguishable from the table imagined as fictional.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now here is the puzzle of actualization formulated as an aporetic triad<\/span><\/p>\n

a. Every incomplete object is impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n

b. The table imagined as real is an incomplete object. <\/span><\/p>\n

c. The table imagined as real is possible, i.e. actualizable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The limbs are collectively inconsistent, but each is very plausible.  At any impasse again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>Do Merely Intentional Objects Have Being of Their Own? With a Little Help from Ingarden<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>The Fictional and the Merely Possible<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>More on Ficta and Impossibilia<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter and I discussed the following over Sunday breakfast. Suppose I want a table, but there is no existing table that I want: I want a  table with special features that no existing table possesses.  So I decide to build a table with these features.  My planning involves imagining a table having certain properties.  It … Continue reading “Imagining X as Real versus Imagining X as Unreal and a Puzzle of Actualization”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[233,621,100,523],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction-and-fictionalism","category-ingarden-roman","category-intentionality","category-phenomenology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}