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[[semblance]] ([[French]]: ''[[semblant]]'')
The very distinction between the [[imaginary]] and the [[symbolic]] implies this opposition between [[appearance]] and [[essence]].
The [[imaginary]] is the realm of observable phenomena which act as. bres[[lure]]s, while the [[symbolic]] is the realm of underlying [[structure]]s which cannot be observed but which must be deduced.
==Science==
This opposition informs all [[scientific ]] enquiry, a basic presupposition of which is that the [[scientist]] must attempt to penetrate through [[false]] [[appearance]] into the hidden [[reality]].
However, [[false]] [[appearance]] in [[psychoanalysis]] is different from [[false]] [[appearance]] in the [[natural]] [[sciences]].
[[Lacan]] uses two terms to refer to [[false]] [[appearance]]s.
The term ''[[apparence]]'' is that used in [[philosophical]] discussions of the distinction between [[essence]] and [[appearance]].
The term ''[[semblant]]'' is less technical, but acquires a growing importance in [[Lacan]]'s work over the years.
It appears as early as 1957,<ref>e.g. {{Ec}} p.435; {{S4}} p.207</ref> and is used several times in the [[seminar]] of 1964,<ref>{{S11}} p.107</ref> but it is not until the early 1970s that the term comes to occupy an important place in [[Lacan]]'s [[theoretical]] [[vocabulary]].
