Western philosophy has treated imagination as mere passive reception of images

Evidence

The second and related misrecognition that we can distinguish is the historical treatment of imagination as a synonym for passive reception. This interpretation has been most prominently adopted by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who traced imagination’s meaning in Greek sources as “appearance” (originating in the verb phainesthai, “to make appear”). Under this prism, an image being put forth by the imagination may well be “real,” albeit merely as a reflection in the mirror—an eidolon (Castoriadis 1975, 3). The function that is emphasized here is that of our ability to perceive (pre-existing) externally given images and to subsequently represent them through “repetition” and “imitation” (as opposed to producing them in the first place). More damningly, an imagination that is conceived as an icon image (eikon) can cloud “true vision” and remove us from it, being “essentially an imitation to which is adjoined a false belief bearing on the reality type of its products” (Castoriadis 1997a, 223). — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 151

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clinches the etymology (eidolon/eikon, phainesthai) and the contrast the next paragraph reverses.
• XREF: connects to: Western philosophy wrongly equated imagination with mere unreal fiction and fantasy — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 150; Western philosophy’s equating of imagination with fantasy delegitimizes it as irrational; Western thought has treated imagination as fantasy or individual genius, not social — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 33 (+4 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Western philosophy wrongly equated imagination with mere unreal fiction and fantasy — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 150; Western philosophy’s equating of imagination with fantasy delegitimizes it as irrational; Western thought has treated imagination as fantasy or individual genius, not social — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 33 (+4 more)