L'Imagination. - [SARTRE'S FIRST BOOK - EXQUISITELY BOUND BY MIGUET]

Paris, 1936. 8vo. Bound uncut with the original printed green and grey wrappers, also the backstrip, in an exquisite dark green morocco binding with gilt horizontal (author, place, year) and vertical (title, in large capitals) lettering to spine and beautiful lacquered marbled green and grey paper laid in on boards, covering all but a ""frame"" of ab. 3 mm. Top edge gilt. Gilt super-ex libris to inside of front board, the bottom of which is signed in gilt: ""J-P Miguet"". Housed in a green paper slip-case with green morocco edges. Near mint copy. (4), 162, (2, -Table) pp.

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First edition of Sartre's first book, of which no numbered or large paper copies were printed, and which only appeared thus. Published when Sartre was 30 years old, ""L'Imagination"" constitutes his first full philosophical work and the first presentation of his basic arguments concerning phenomenology, consciousness and intentionality, which he later developed in full, and which came to have a profound influence on 20th century philosophy.Sartre, who on the title-page is described as ""professeur au lycée du Havre"", was requested to write the present work by Professor H. Delacroix, who was the supervisor on his dissertation. Before establishing his central arguments about ""Imagination"", Sartre famously criticizes earlier theories of imagination, in particular those of Descartes, Leibnitz, and Hume. He goes on to discussing psychological theories of imagination, including Bergson - the critique of whom offended for instance Meeau-Ponty, who otherwise praised Sartre's book. Finally, Sartre provides a highly important interpretation of Husserl's theory of imagination, which foreshadows the phenomenological way of understanding imagination that was to dominate the decades to come. As thus, the work constitutes an important work in the history of phenomenology. and of 20th century philosophy.Contat & Rybalka: 36/8