Memory: A History
Dmitri Nikulin
Abstract
This book intends to show the ways the concept of memory has been used and appropriated throughout the history of philosophy. In ancient philosophy, memory was considered a repository of sensible and mental impressions and was complemented by recollection—the process of recovering the content of past thoughts and perceptions. Such an understanding of memory led to the development both of mnemotechnics and of attempts to locate memory within the structure of cognitive faculties. In contemporary philosophical and historical debates, memory frequently stands in for reason by becoming a predominan ... More
This book intends to show the ways the concept of memory has been used and appropriated throughout the history of philosophy. In ancient philosophy, memory was considered a repository of sensible and mental impressions and was complemented by recollection—the process of recovering the content of past thoughts and perceptions. Such an understanding of memory led to the development both of mnemotechnics and of attempts to locate memory within the structure of cognitive faculties. In contemporary philosophical and historical debates, memory frequently stands in for reason by becoming a predominant capacity to which one refers when one wants to explain not only personal identity but also historical, political, or social phenomena. In contemporary interpretation, it is memory, and not reason, that acts in and through human actions and history, which comes as a critical reaction to the overly rationalized and simplified Enlightenment conception of reason. Moreover, in modernity memory has taken on one of the most distinctive features of reason: it is thought of as capable not only of recollecting past events and meanings, but also itself. In this respect, this book can be taken as a reflective philosophical attempt by memory to recall itself, its functioning and transformations throughout its own history.
Keywords:
memory,
memory and recollection,
memory and literature,
memory and psychology,
memory and recognition,
oblivion
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199793839 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793839.001.0001 |
