Spatiality, imagery, and the paradox of fictional emotions

Object of the paper is the meaning of “reality” and the contribution of imagination to its definition. In the first paragraph, the author asks to which extent the spatial features of imagery can be interpreted as conducive to reality judgments. The question is raised by means of a brief critical account of S. Kosslyn’s view of imagery. In the second paragraph the relations between imagination and reality are discussed in the light of Sartre’s analyses in The Imaginary. This analysis concludes by attaining two complementary definitions of reality. In the third paragraph the previous conceptual clarification is applied to the so-called “paradox of fictional emotions”.