Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory PDF
Preview Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory
Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory The surge of philosophical interest in episodic memory has brought to light a number of controversial questions about this form of memory that have only recently begun to be addressed in detail. This book organises discussion around six such questions, offering two new chapters per question, from experts in the field. The questions are: I. What is the relationship between memory and imagination? II. Do memory traces have content? III. What is the nature of mnemonic confabulation? IV. What is the function of episodic memory? V. Do non-human animals have episodic memory? VI. Does episodic memory give us knowledge of the past? The book constitutes a valuable resource for researchers, teachers, and students alike. For researchers, it provides an up-to-date discussion of some of the main theories, arguments, and problems in the area. For teachers, the book can supply the readings for an entire course, or particular sections can provide the readings for specific units within a broader philosophy of memory course. For students, the book offers accessible discussions of some of the most recent topics in the philosophy of memory, which, when taken together, serve as a well-rounded introduction to the area. André Sant’Anna is a McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy and the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program at Washington University in St. Louis. Christopher Jude McCarroll is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. Kourken Michaelian is Professor of Philosophy at the Université Grenoble Alpes, where he directs the Centre for Philosophy of Memory, and is a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Current Controversies in Philosophy Series Editor: John Turri University of Waterloo In venerable Socratic fashion, philosophy proceeds best through reasoned con- versation. Current Controversies in Philosophy provides short, accessible vol- umes that cast a spotlight on ongoing central philosophical conversations. In each book, pairs of experts debate four or five key issues of contemporary con- cern, setting the stage for students, teachers and researchers to join the discus- sion. Short chapter descriptions precede each chapter, and an annotated bibliography and suggestions for further reading conclude each controversy. In addition, each volume includes both a general introduction and a supplemental guide to further controversies. Combining timely debates with useful pedagogi- cal aids allows the volumes to serve as clear and detailed snapshots, for all levels of readers, of some the most exciting work happening in philosophy today. Published Volumes in the Series: Current Controversies in Values and Science Edited by Kevin C. Elliott and Daniel Steel Current Controversies in Philosophy of Religion Edited by Paul Draper Current Controversies in Philosophy of Cognitive Science Edited by Adam J. Lerner, Simon Cullen, and Sarah-Jane Leslie Current Controversies in Philosophy of Science Edited by Shamik Dasgupta, Ravit Dotan, and Brad Weslake Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory Edited by André Sant’Anna, Christopher Jude McCarroll, and Kourken Michaelian For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge. com/Current-Controversies-in-Philosophy/book-series/CCIP Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory Edited by André Sant’Anna, Christopher Jude McCarroll, and Kourken Michaelian First published 2023 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Taylor & Francis The right of André Sant’Anna, Christopher Jude McCarroll, and Kourken Michaelian to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this title has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-43275-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-43279-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-00227-7 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003002277 Typeset in Bembo by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive) Contents Notes on Contributors viii Current controversies in philosophy of memory: Editors’ introduction 1 ANDRÉ SANT’ANNA, CHRISTOPHER JUDE MCCARROLL, AND KOURKEN MICHAELIAN PART I What is the relationship between memory and imagination? 17 1 Remembering, imagining, and memory traces: Toward a continuist causal theory 19 PETER LANGLAND-HASSAN 2 The relation between memory and imagination: A debate about the right concepts 38 CÉSAR SCHIRMER DOS SANTOS, CHRISTOPHER JUDE MCCARROLL, AND ANDRÉ SANT’ANNA Further Readings for Part I 57 Study Questions for Part I 58 PART II Do memory traces have content? 59 3 Remembering without a trace? Moving beyond trace minimalism 61 DANIEL D. HUTTO vi Contents 4 Distributed traces and the causal theory of constructive memory 82 JOHN SUTTON AND GERARD O’BRIEN Further Readings for Part II 105 Study Questions for Part II 106 PART III What is the nature of mnemonic confabulation? 107 5 An explanationist model of (false) memory 109 SVEN BERNECKER 6 Towards a virtue-theoretic account of confabulation 127 KOURKEN MICHAELIAN Further Readings for Part III 145 Study Questions for Part III 146 PART IV What is the function of episodic memory? 147 7 Episodic memory: And what is it for? 149 JOHANNES B. MAHR 8 Episodic memory is not for the future 166 SARAH K. ROBINS Further Readings for Part IV 185 Study Questions for Part IV 186 PART V Do non-human animals have episodic memory? 187 9 Episodic memory in animals: Optimism, kind scepticism and pluralism 189 ALEXANDRIA BOYLE 10 What does it take to remember episodically? 206 NAZIM KEVEN Further Readings for Part V 223 Study Questions for Part V 224 Contents vii PART VI Does episodic memory give us knowledge of the past? 225 11 The epistemology of episodic memory 227 THOMAS D. SENOR 12 You don’t know what happened 244 MATTHEW FRISE Further Readings for Part VI 259 Study Questions for Part VI 260 Index 261 Contributors Sven Bernecker is Humboldt Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cologne and Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. His main areas of research are epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind, and he has published numerous articles in these areas. He is the author of Reading Epistemology (2006), The Metaphysics of Memory (2008), and Memory (2010). He is co-editor of Knowledge (2000), The Routledge Companion to Epistemology (2011), Handbook of Philosophy of Memory (2017), “Medical Knowledge in a Social World” (Synthese 196, 2019), and Kant and Contemporary Epistemology (History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis, special issue). Alexandria Boyle is Research Fellow in Kinds of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge and the University of Bonn. She specialises in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, looking in particular at questions about non- human minds and the methods used to study them. Her current research focusses on episodic memory in nonhuman animals and artificial agents. She has also written on self-awareness, self-recognition and mindreading in non- humans, and more general methodological issues in the study of animal minds. Matthew Frise is a lecturer at Santa Clara University. His work draws from cognitive psychology to help us understand better the normative significance of reconstruction in human memory. His research has appeared in such jour- nals as Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Studies, The Philosophical Quarterly, Synthese, American Philosophical Quarterly, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, and Erkenntnis. He is writing a book on the episte- mology of memory with Cambridge University Press. Daniel D. Hutto is Senior Professor of Philosophical Psychology and Head of the School of Liberal Arts at the University of Wollongong. He is co-author of the award-winning Radicalizing Enactivism (2013) and its sequel, Evolving Enactivism (2017). His other books include: Folk Psychological Narratives (2008) and Wittgenstein and the End of Philosophy (2006). He is editor of Narrative and Understanding Persons (2007) and Narrative and Folk Psychology Contributors ix (2009). A special yearbook, Radical Enactivism, focusing on his philosophy of intentionality, phenomenology and narrative, was published in 2006. Nazım Keven is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Bilkent University in Turkey. He received the Science Academy, Turkey’s Young Scientist Award BAGEP in 2020. His main area of research is in philosophy of cognitive sci- ence, with a particular focus on memory, narratives, and human sociality. His work is published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Synthese, Neuropsychologia and Hippocampus. Peter Langland-Hassan is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of Explaining Imagination (2020) and of numerous articles on topics including inner speech, memory, imagination, pretense, delusions, and the relation between language and abstract thought. Johannes B. Mahr is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University funded by a Walter Benjamin Fellowship from the German Research Foundation. Before that, he was a mind, brain, and behav- iour fellow with a joint appointment in the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology at Harvard. His work combines philosophical and empirical approaches to study episodic memory, imagination, and human communication. Christopher Jude McCarroll is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. He is also an affiliated member of the Centre for Philosophy of Memory at the Université Grenoble Alpes. His research interests are in philosophy of mind, especially philosophy of memory. He has a particular interest in visual perspective in the imagery of episodic memory and imagi- nation, with which he investigates issues such as the reconstructive nature of episodic memory, the relation between memory and identity, and the rela- tion between episodic prospection and self-control. Kourken Michaelian is a professor of philosophy at the Université Grenoble Alpes, where he directs the Centre for Philosophy of Memory, and a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. He is the author of Mental Time Travel: Episodic Memory and Our Knowledge of the Personal Past (2016) and many articles on the simulation theory of memory and coeditor of volumes, including Seeing the Future: Theoretical Perspectives on Future-Oriented Mental Time Travel (2016), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Memory (2017) and New Directions in the Philosophy of Memory (2018). Gerard O’Brien is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He specialises in neurocomputational models of cog- nition, consciousness and mental representation. He also has a subsidiary interest in naturalised approaches to ethics and values.
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