Literary notes about phantasm (AI summary)
In literature, “phantasm” often signifies an elusive, ephemeral image—whether a spectral vision in a character’s life, a symbol of illusory political or national identity, or a representation of the mind’s fleeting images. It appears as a tangible yet insubstantial presence, as when a living character is confronted with an apparitional figure ([1], [2]), or is employed metaphorically to critique a hollow assembly of power ([3]). Philosophical and poetic texts further use the term to highlight the transient nature of mental representations—a dreamlike or mistaken perception that borders on reality yet remains fundamentally unreal ([4], [5]). This multiplicity of usage underscores the word’s power to evoke both mystery and melancholy, illustrating how imagination can blur the boundaries between what is real and what is mere phantasm.
- In three of these cases, the agent whose phantasm appeared was certainly still alive.
— from Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death by F. W. H. (Frederic William Henry) Myers - “I know the people who live there,” my informant, Jarvis, continued, “and they have seen and heard the phantasm over and over again.”
— from Some Haunted Houses of England & Wales. by Elliott O'Donnell - An Assembly of Notables was brought together, but it was only the empty phantasm of national representation.
— from Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 1 of 3), Essay 1: Robespierre by John Morley - But it is clear that the phantasm is compared as object to the passive intellect (De Anima iii, text.
— from Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae)From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint - But in us the intellective operation depends on the sensitive: since "we cannot understand without a phantasm" (De Anima iii, 7).
— from Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae)From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint
