Abstract
This chapter approaches the problem of imagination (phantasy) in Plato’s work, following it terminologically as phantasia—phantasis—phantasma—phantasticos, stressing the actual role imagination plays in the structure of human cognition. Plato uses the term phantasy synonymously with the term „phenomenon“, contrasting both with the notion of truth (alethea) and of the image (eikon).
Phantasy mediates between sensation and belief (doxa), thus already here in Plato serving the intermediary role of a bridge between intellect and sensory perception. It pervades both and links them; it links the images with concepts in the sphere of understanding and thus it helps the soul to understand objects in their stability, identity and one-selfness.
The author concludes that it is phantasy as such which, in Plato’s work, founds the possibility, that a concrete material object were recognized in sensory perception as that, which it in truth is.