L'epistemologia stoica e i suoi fantasmi

What is the mental image and what generates it? According to Aristotle (and also according to Epicurus) the φάντασμα is strictly connected to perception; it is the legacy of a past experience to which one can or wants to refer. Here we support the thesis that for the Stoics, however, the incorporeity of the mental image acquires a precise autonomous value: φαντάσματα are something that does not exist in the world of known reality but that can be thought of. A being and the representation of it both claim to be real. If we want to understand this assertion, we must rely on the specific incorporalium constituted by the λεκτόν. Unlike Aristotle, the existence of the φάντασμα implies the existence of the φανταστικόν, i.e. the mental image/representation resulting from the natural human ability to represent and express even what, precisely, has no real consistency.