Agustín: la memoria, centro de la actio animæ

Abstract

Since his very early writings, memoria is for Augustine an active power of the soul, instead of being a mere retention of what has been learnt in the past. Rather Augustine is concerned with showing that memory is an ‘organizing’ and ‘co-ordinating’ centre of psychic processes. Emphasis is put on the capability of contracting and expanding which pertains to memory, both when dealing with the actio by which the soul moves the body (De immortalitate animas), and with sense perception as a cognitive activity (De musica). Since these early writings, memory is presented as a power involved in several processes, namely, in forming images of perceived objects (phantasíai), in storing such images, and also in recolling objects perceived in the past (recordatio) and in creating images of things never perceived, referring to generic recollections (phantasmata). More and more clearly Augustine outlines the multifunctional character of memory so far as to define it in De Trinitate as cogitandi modus.