Abstract
The article aims to explore some of the more strictly aesthetic-philosophical as-pects of Stanislaw Lem's famous novel Solaris. Beginning with a historical recon-struction of the use of the concepts of fantasy and imagination in Western culture, and exploring the relationship between these two terms and the idea of matter with which they are intertwined, the article offers an interpretation of the novel in which the relationship between matter and imagination plays a crucial role for the characters themselves.