Ultimately, Sartre argues that because we can imagine, we are ontologically free. A consciousness that could not imagine, he points out, would be hopelessly mired in the "real", incapable of the perception of unrealized possibilities, and thus any real freedom of thought or choice.
Sartre ultimately asserts that our ability to conceive allows us to be ontologically free. He observes that a consciousness unable to imagine would be trapped in reality, unable to grasp unrealizable possibilities, thereby lacking true freedom of thought or choice.