On the Idea of Appearing Next to Her

This paper, titled "On the Idea of Appearing Next to Her", explores a speculative epistemological-metaphysical framework to account for a strangely familiar cognitive phenomenon, namely the projection of the self into the scene of a perceived ideal, such as a photo or slideshow of a beautiful person. While contemporary cognitive science, neuroscience, and psychology have produced empirical insights into perception and desires, this paper aims to investigate why such projections occur through a synthesis of Aristotelian phantasmata, Thomistic intellection, and Kantian schematism. The proposed model, termed EPPB (Epistemic Projection Phantasm of Beauty), investigates the rational soul's tendency to conjure a conceptually rich, structured phantasm which is a projection and not merely through hormonal suggestion but through it's metaphysical operations as an intellective, desirous agent.