Introductory description

“Memory is what makes our lives. Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it we are nothing.” So writes the surrealist film director Luis Buñuel in his autobiography. The phenomenon of memory has been a source of fascination as well as puzzlement not just to philosophers. What happens when we mentally travel back into the past? Do animal share humans' ability to remember the past, or are they cognitively 'stuck in the present'? What relation is there, if any, between memory and the self? Given that the past will actually never come again, is there actually and point to being able to recollect it? This module will look at some of the different aspects of the philosophy of memory, which is a particularly burgeoning area of philosophical research at the moment.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

1. Historical background: Memory from Aristotle to Russell
2. Memory and causation
3. Time and memory: is there such a things as a 'feeling of pastness'?
4. Why remember? The function(s) of memory
5. Memory and the Self
6. False memory, confabulation and forgetting
7. The pleasures and pains of remembering: treasured memories and nostalgia
8. Joint reminiscing
9. The ethics of memory

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of key debates about the nature memory, and should be able to clearly articulate the opposing positions in those debates.
• show an awareness of the key literature, and have a good understanding of the central concepts that frame the debates. They should be able to critically evaluate the arguments for and against the positions defended in the key literature
• analyse and critically evaluate the key ideas and arguments discussed during the module, and come to an independent assessment of their merits with the aid of key literature. Students should be able to identify and draw on additional literature beyond the key literature discussed in class.
• discuss clearly the issues raised by their reading of the key literature. They should be able to engage with and evaluate this literature in a way that demonstrates relevant and appropriate philosophical skills.
• draw connections between the key ideas and arguments discussed in the module and wider debates in different areas of philosophy as well as the interdisciplinary study of the mind

Indicative reading list

Handbooks/General Resources:
Craver, C., & Sant’Anna, A. (forthcoming). Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Memory
Sant'Anna, A., McCarroll, C. J., & Michaelian, K. (eds). (2023). Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory. Routledge.
Michaelian, K., & Sutton, J. (2017). Memory. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 ed.).

Individual sources:
Anscombe, G. E. M. (1976). Memory, 'experience' and causation. In H. D. Lewis (Ed.), Contemporary British philosophy. Fourth series (pp. 15-29). Allen & Unwin.
Aronowitz, S. (2018). Memory is a modeling system. Mind and Language 34 (4), 483-502.
Baier, A (1978). Mixing memory and desire. American Philosophical Quarterly 13, 3, 213-220
Campbell, S. (2006). Our faithfulness to the past: Reconstructing memory value. Philosophical Psychology, 19(3), 361–380.
De Brigard, F. (2014). Is memory for remembering? Recollection as a form of episodic hypothetical thinking. Synthese, 191(2), 155-185.
Debus, D. (2007). Being emotional about the past: On the nature and role of past-directed emotions. Noûs, 41: 758-779
Dokic, J. (2014). Feeling the past: A two-tiered account of episodic memory. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 5(3), 413-426.
Ganeri, J. (2017). Mental time travel and attention. Australasian Philosophical Review, 1(4), 353–373.
Hoerl, C. (2022). A knowledge-first approach to episodic memory. Synthese, 200(5), 376.
Holland, R. F. (1954). The empiricist theory of memory. Mind, 63(252), 464-486.
Kind, A. (2018). The feeling of familiarity. Acta Scientiarum. Human and Social Sciences, v. 43, e61024
Martin, C. B., & Deutscher, M. (1966). Remembering. Philosophical Review, 75(April), 161-196.
Martin, M. G. F. (2001). Out of the past: Episodic recall as retained acquaintance. In C. Hoerl & T. McCormack (Eds.), Time and memory: Issues in philosophy and psychology (pp. 257-284). Oxford University Press.
Robins, S. K. (2022). The Role of Memory Science in the Philosophy of Memory. Philosophy Compass, 37, e12880.
Schechtman, M. (1994). The truth about memory. Philosophical Psychology, 7(1), 3–18.
Soteriou, M. (2008). The epistemological role of episodic recollection. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 77(2), 472-492.

Interdisciplinary

A number of different disciplines contribute to the study of memory. The module will particularly look at how empirical research on memory in psychology can inform philosophical debates about the subject.

Subject specific skills

The ability to understand, analyse and criticise ideas and arguments put forward in the philosophical literature. Command of philosophical terminology and means to articulate philosophical ideas. Grasp of what makes particular questions distinctively philosophical ones, and how they relate to issues investigated in other disciplines.

Transferable skills

The ability to grasp complex thoughts and arguments, identify their strengths and weaknesses and write about them in a structured manner, articulating one's own point of view.