“Aesthetic contemplation is an induced dream and the passage to the real
is an authentic awakening” (Imaginary 193 ).
In a concluding remark that addresses a problem that is common but
especially pressing for a philosopher of the imaginary who is also a
moralist, Sartre underscores the sharp distinction between the aesthetic
and the moral. The aesthetic is a matter of the imaginary, the irreal,
whereas the moral is solidly attached to our real world, with its pervasive
contingency and ultimate absurdity. The issue is not settled so quickly, of
course, as Sartre’s subsequent likening of moral choice to artistic cre-
ativity in his lecture “Existentialism is a Humanism” ( 1945 ) attests. Still,
this allusion to our contingent and absurd world resonates clearly with
the basic theme of his “factum on contingency,”Nausea, published two
years earlier.
136 Consciousness as imagination