Sven Bernecker presents an analysis of the concept of propositional (or factual) memory, and examines a number of metaphysical and epistemological issues crucial to the understanding of memory.
Bernecker argues that memory, unlike knowledge, implies neither belief nor justification. There
are instances where memory, though hitting the mark of truth, succeeds in an epistemically defective way. This book shows that, contrary to received wisdom in epistemology, memory not only preserves epistemic features generated by other epistemic sources but also functions as a source of
justification and knowledge.
According to the causal theory of memory argued for in this book, the dependence of memory states on past representations supports counterfactuals of the form: if the subject hadn't represented a given proposition in the past he wouldn't represent it in the
present. The book argues for a version of content externalism whereupon the individuation of memory contents depends on relations the subject bears to his past physical or social environment. Moreover, Bernecker shows that memory doesn't require identity, but only similarity, of past and present
attitudes and contents. The notion of content similarity is explicated in terms of the entailment relation.
Introduction
1. The Concept of Memory
2. Personal Identity and Memory
3. Remembering Without Knowing
4. In 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
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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, 2010).
Making Sense - Margot Northey and Joan McKibbin
Memory - Sven Bernecker
