Aims are generated through imagination but are not made of imaginary stuff

The aims and ideals that move us are generated through imagination. But they are not made of imaginary stuff. They are made of the hard stuff of the world of physical and social experience […] The new vision does not arise out of nothing, but emerges through seeing, in terms of possibilities, that is, of imagination, old things in new relations.

Dewey, J. (2008), A Common Faith. The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925-1953, volume 9, edited by Jo Ann Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. (p. 34)