Memory, imagination, and narrative
Debus D (2018)
Publication Type: Authored book
Publication year: 2018
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198717881
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198717881.003.0005
Abstract
Sometimes we experientially (or ‘recollectively’) remember, and sometimes we sensorily imagine things. Recollective memories (or ‘R-memories’) and sensory imaginations (or ‘s-imaginations’) characteristically correspond to our use of the distinct senses, and from the experiencing subject’s own point of view, S-imaginations and R-memories are phenomenologically rather similar. At the same time, however, R-memories and S-imaginations play very different roles in a subject’s mental life. How is this possible? How can subjects (rightly) treat those different kinds of mental episodes in relevantly different ways? This chapter is centred around the observation that R-memories (usually) have a characteristic relational property-they are ‘embedded’ in a context of relevant beliefs, on the basis of which a subject can tell a relevant story (or narrative)-which S-imaginations usually lack. With the help of this observation we can explain a subject’s ability to treat S-imaginations and R-memories in relevantly different ways.
Involved external institutions
United States (USA) (US)How to cite
APA:
Debus, D. (2018). Memory, imagination, and narrative. Oxford University Press.
MLA:
Debus, Dorothea. Memory, imagination, and narrative. Oxford University Press, 2018.
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