Fantasy

pp. 63-70

in: Marie-Luise Schubert Kalsi, Meinong's theory of knowledge, Berlin, Springer, 1987

Abstract

In the beginning of his paper "Phantasie-Vorstellung und Phantasie," Meinong writes the following: "Regardless of the broad meaning with which many psychologists use the expression fantasy idea, the word "fantas' has, as everyone knows, a very different meaning in its common-sense psychological use from the use in the language of psychology proper. But the common-sense needs are not foreign to the specialist, and he is in need of a replacement for the common word "fantasy" in favor of a technical term. So he speaks of the fantasy of an artist, of the fantasy in children's play, etc."¹ After that Meinong goes on to make the concept more precise. We are not so much interested in that attempt at precision as in the understanding of the Meinongian concept of memory. We proceed from the basis that for Meinong all memory ideas are fantasy ideas but not vice versa. Fantasy can be perceptual, intuitive or abstract.² It is important to take note of that, because the possibility must remain open that one may remember other things than those which were externally perceived. However, Meinong says in "Phantasie-Vorstellung und Phantasie"³ that fantasy ideas are exclusively perceptual; but in the following he changes his mind.