offers a detailed and erudite philosophical study of propositional memory ... admirably and unashamedly ambitious.
Ian Phillips, Mind
In this book, Sven Bernecker investigates the defining characteristics of memory and the issues essential to understanding it. The book gives a comprehensive philosophical account of memory and illuminates issues central to contemporary discussions of metaphysics and epistemology such as personal identity, causation, mental content, and justification.
Bernecker argues that remembering something, unlike knowing something, does not require having a belief. There are also instances where one has a memory but no justification for what one remembers. These surprising results suggest that remembering something requires standing in an appropriate causal relation to the relevant past representation. The book shows that a distinction needs to be made between the causal dependence of a memory on a past representation and the causal dependence of a memory on that which retains the past representation. This distinction turns out to be crucial for discerning cases of remembering from instances where some content is learned anew rather than recalled. The book proposes a theory of memory contents whereby they are determined by relations the subject bears to his past physical or social environment rather than by states internal to the subject. This theory is shown to be compatible with the compelling psychological criterion of personal identity. Against the background of the theory of memory contents, Bernecker maintains that a memory content need not be the same as, but only similar to, the content of the representation from which it causally derives. This view has interesting results for the debate over false memories and the theory of self-knowledge.
Les mer
Sven Bernecker presents a new causal theory of memory, examining a number of metaphysical and epistemological issues crucial to the understanding of propositional or factual memory. This book provides sophisticated and comprehensive coverage of a much neglected area of philosophy, and will also appeal to cognitive scientists and psychologists.
Les mer
Introduction ; 1. The Concept of Memory ; 2. Personal Identity and Memory ; 3. Remembering Without Knowing ; 4. n Defense of the Causal Theory of Memory ; 5. The Nature of Memory Causation ; 6. Pastist Externalism about Memory Content ; 7. In Defense of Pastist Externalism ; 8. The Authenticity of Memory ; 9. Concluding Remarks ; Bibliography ; Index
Les mer
A comprehensive, sophisticated and up-to-date philosophical analysis of memory
This will be essential reading on a surprisingly neglected area of philosophy
Will appeal to a broad interdisciplinary readership
Les mer
Sven Bernecker is 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 widely in these areas. He is the author of Reading Epistemology (Blackwell, 2006), The Metaphysics of Memory (Springer, 2008), and is the editor of Knowledge (with Fred Dretske, Oxford University Press, 2000) and The Routledge Companion to
Epistemology (with Duncan Pritchard, Routledge, forthcoming).
Les mer
A comprehensive, sophisticated and up-to-date philosophical analysis of memory
This will be essential reading on a surprisingly neglected area of philosophy
Will appeal to a broad interdisciplinary readership
Les mer
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780199577569
Publisert
2009
Utgiver
Oxford University Press
Vekt
483 gr
Høyde
222 mm
Bredde
144 mm
Dybde
23 mm
Aldersnivå
G, P, 01, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
288
Forfatter