Reality is grasped only as a series of further representations

Evidence

With Castoriadis, each of these misrecognitions is not only refuted but reversed entirely. First, imagination precedes and anticipates “reality,” which in turn stems from the human capacity to imagine—reality is nothing but imagination’s ongoing outcome. To understand this radical view, we must trace it back to the idea of phantasia, the notion of imagination appearing first in Plato and which bears equally on “sensation,” “cognition,” and “action.” Aristotle (1984) substantiated this view: imagination is phantasia aisthetike, and the force generating emotions—sensuous phantasia—as well as reason—deliberative phantasia (Rhetoric 1370a, 1378b), with which we actively construct the world around us. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 152 (#complicates, via linked claim)

For Lacan, the Real is what any ‘reality’ must suppress; indeed, reality constitutes itself through just this repression. The Real is an unrepresentable X, a traumatic void that can only be glimpsed in the fractures and inconsistencies in the field of apparent reality. So one strategy against capitalist realism could involve invoking the Real(s) underlying the reality that capitalism presents to us. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 40 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: For Lacan the real only becomes graspable through symbolic inscription. — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 2938; Only simulacra exist; reality itself is a second-order simulation — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 184; Models anticipate and immanently structure the real, leaving no space for fiction. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 397 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Imagination precedes and produces reality rather than reflecting it #complicates (0.78) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 152
• Comprehension requires conscious confrontation with reality rather than interpretive comfort #complicates (0.75)
• Reality constitutes itself by repressing an unrepresentable Real #complicates (0.74) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 40