Abstract

According to Sartre, irreal objects, such as centaur, appear to consciousness without any temporal determination. Husserl also speaks about quasi-time, but this quasi, even when it constitutes irreality, remains bound to the general time of consciousness which is one of the fundamental synthesising moments within the structure of consciousness. Only inner temporality guarantees the unity of human consciousness. The acts of fantasy also belong to the general synthesis of consciousness. Time is a continuous synthesis constituting consciousness itself and offering a common basis for all experiences. Transcendental structures, according to Kant and Heidegger, are testimony to this – the radical temporality of imagination makes the opening of the horizons of reality possible. The link between fantasy, imagination and time is more fundamental than the link between them and perception because the former, irreducible and irreversible, constitutes the latter.Keywords: phantasy, imagination, temporality, time, reality.