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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 .
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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
