Towards a Critical Ontology of the Imaginary

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce the general idea of a critical ontology of the imaginary as an inheritance and a critical appropriation of Michel Foucault’s work. We will begin with what Foucault had to say explicitly about image, imagination and imaginary in his frist published text, an introduction to the French translation of Ludwig Binswanger’s Traum und Existenz. After that, the concept of a partition of the imaginary ”“ inspired by Jacques Rancière’s work ”“ will be introduced to define what in the order of the imaginary demands a critical ontology in Foucauldian terms and what are the most general features of this kind of order. Concepts developed by other authors will also be used to define the ethical and political issues that emerge from the social organization of the imaginary. At last, we will see how a critical encounter can take place between the theses presented in Foucault’s introductory essay, the concerns that characterize the ethical dimension of his work in general and the issues regarding the government of the imaginary in our society.