Download
1 / 15
150 likes | 310 Views
Memory and temporal awareness. Jordi Fernández Macquarie University. The project. Memory experiences have Content, or intentional properties. Phenomenology, or phenomenal properties. If you remember that p, the fact that p appears to you as having happened in the past .
E N D
Memory and temporal awareness Jordi Fernández Macquarie University
The project Memory experiences have Content, or intentional properties Phenomenology, or phenomenal properties • If you remember that p, the fact that p appears to you as having happened in the past Specify the content of memory experiences In a way that respects their phenomenology
Specifying “content” • Memory experiences can be correct or incorrect. • To specify the content of M: To specify what it takes for M to becorrect. • To claim that the content of M= proposition P: What it takes for M to be correct is that P.
“What it takes for M to be true” Suppose I utter ‘It’s cold here’ (utterance U) Situation A Situation B In the classroom it’s cold It’s warm in the classroom Outside it’s warm Outside it’s cold I am in the classroom I am outside Consider U in A: “What it takes for it to be true” is … • In sense 1 It’s cold in the classroom • In sense 2 It’s cold where U happens In sense 2: U in A describes B correctly In sense 1: It doesn’t
The Right Amount of Info test Suppose we claim that the content of M is: P Did we get the right proposition? For any possible situation W, this should happen: • If, intuitively, M represents Wcorrectly, then Pis the casein W. • If, intuitively, M represents Wincorrectly, then P is not the casein W.
The Absolute view Consider a subject S Take a memory experience M that S would express by uttering “I remember that q” Let t2 be the time at which S has M. Then, there is some time/period of time t1 before t2 such that: The content of M is: q happens at t1
Trouble with RAI • In W1: • q happens at t1 & you witness it • At t2, you have a memory experience that you would express with “ I remember that q ” • In W2: q happens at t1 & you don’t exist Absolutist: Your experience correctly represents W2 Intuitively: It does not • Too little info to account for temporal awareness
The Relative view Consider a subject S Take a memory experience M that she would express by uttering “I remember that q” There is some time / period of time T such that The content of M is: q happens T-earlier than M • It sheds some light on temporal awareness • It deals with the W2 case
Trouble with RAI • In W1: • q happens at t1 & you witness it • At t2, you have a memory experience M that you would express with “ I remember that q ” • In W3: q happens at t1 & you witness it you travel back in time earlier than t1 & have M Intuitively: M in W1 correctly represents W3 Relativist: It does not
Causal self-reference view Consider a subject S. If M is a memory experience that S would express by uttering “I remember that q”, then there is a perceptual experience P that S would express by uttering “I perceive that q” such that The content of M is: M was caused by P, which was caused by q
Some virtues of CSR • It deals with the W2 case M in W1 turns out to represent W2 incorrectly (In W2, M is not caused by anything.) • It deals with the W3 case M in W1 turns out to represent W3 correctly (In W3, M is caused by a perceptual experience of q which is caused by q.)
Trouble with RAI • In W4: 1. P is not typically caused by q being the case P 2. But q does cause P on this occasion 3. P causes M W4 W1 P P CSR: M in W1 correctly represents W4 M M Intuitively: It does not
The veridical view Consider a subject S. Take a memory experience M that she would express by uttering “I remember that q”. There is a perceptual experience P that S would express by uttering “I perceive that q” such that the content of M is: M is caused by P, which is veridical
Virtues of the veridical view • It deals with W2 M in W1 turns out to represent W2 incorrectly • It deals with W3 M in W1 turns out to correctly represent W3 • It deals with W4 M in W1 turns out to represent W4 incorrectly
Temporal Awareness In memory, remembered events are presented to us as being in the Past You apparently remember that q by being in cognitive contact with the causal history of your memory It is (presumably) nomologically necessary: Events in the causal history of your memory are in the past Temporal Awareness is the experience of events that, as a matter of natural law, are in the past But it is not the experience of time. It’s awareness of origin or causal history
