Abstract
Mental time travel (MTT) is quite a novel label in Philosophy. The notion was set by experimental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist Endel Tulving in the 1980s and refers to the ability to be aware of subjective past and future events. Tulving’s view on memory and consciousness provides an important conceptual distinction founded in experimentally observed data. In this paper I discuss (1) his concept of episodic memory as awareness, based on Peter Hacker’s distinction of perception and sensation, and his account of memory, and (2) whether memory can be taken as an own-body subjective perception, which, therefore, challenges the conception of memory as stored information in the brain and the idea that we could somehow perceive our memories. The main puzzle is: if awareness is a conscious state that involves veridical perception of present inner or outer states/events, how can we conceive awareness of past and future events? This discussion aims to contribute to Tulving’s conception of MTT by clarifying the conceptual foundations on which we can understand memory. Keywords: memory, episodic memory, awareness, private experiences.
Highlights
The neural investigation of cognitive capacities has been opening several new ways of conceiving mental states and processes and how the brain makes them hap en
In this paper I intend to present a conceptual clarification of the distinction between episodic and semantic memory made by Endel Tulving
In considering that episodic memory is awareness of past events Tulving assumes that the subject is having, at the present time, the mental experience she had in the past while she (1) is aware that it hap ened in the past, (2) that the present moment is not the past moment and (3) that she is at the present time
Summary
The neural investigation of cognitive capacities has been opening several new ways of conceiving mental states and processes and how the brain makes them hap en. “The three clues—sense of subjective time, autonoetic awareness, and self—point to three central components of a neurocognitive (mind/brain) system that makes mental time travel possi le. This (hypothetical) system is ca led episodic memory” The evidence is based on cases of neural impairment and behavioral deficits (Tulving, 2002) and there is no conceptual pro lem in identifying parts of the brain, such as the hip ocampus and the medial temporal lobe as the neurological basis of the capacity for remembering (Hacker, 2013). Information can be transmitted and multiplied, while private experiences are defined as essentia ly individual
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