Memory and
temporal awareness
Jordi Fernández
Macquarie University
The project
Memory experiences have
Content, or intentional properties
Phenomenology, or phenomenal properties
 If you remember that p,
the fact that p appears to you as having
happened in the past
Specify the content of memory experiences
In a way that respects their phenomenology
Specifying “content”

Memory experiences can be correct or incorrect.

To specify the content of M:
To specify what it takes for M to be correct.

To claim that the content of M = proposition P:
What it takes for M to be correct is that P.
“What it takes for M to be true”
Suppose I utter ‘It’s cold here’ (utterance U)
Situation A
Situation B
In the classroom it’s cold It’s warm in the classroom
Outside it’s warm
Outside it’s cold
I am in the classroom
I am outside
Consider U in A: “What it takes for it to be true” is …


In sense 1
In sense 2
In sense 2:
In sense 1:
It’s cold in the classroom
It’s cold where U happens
U in A describes B correctly
It doesn’t
The Right Amount of Info test
Suppose we claim that the content of M is: P
Did we get the right proposition?
For any possible situation W, this should happen:

If, intuitively, M represents W correctly,
then P is the case in W.

If, intuitively, M represents W incorrectly,
then P is not the case in W.
The Absolute view
Consider a subject S
Take a memory experience M that S would express by
uttering “I remember that q”
Let t2 be the time at which S has M. Then,
there is some time/period of time t1 before t2 such that:
The content of M is:
q happens at t1
Trouble with RAI
•
In W1:
q happens at t1 & you witness it
At t2, you have a memory experience that you
would express with “ I remember that q ”
•
In W2:
q happens at t1 & you don’t exist
Absolutist: Your experience correctly represents W2
Intuitively: It does not
•
Too little info to account for temporal awareness
The Relative view
Consider a subject S
Take a memory experience M that she would express
by uttering “I remember that q”
There is some time / period of time T such that
The content of M is:
q happens T-earlier than M
 It sheds some light on temporal awareness
 It deals with the W2 case
Trouble with RAI
•
In W1:
q happens at t1 & you witness it
At t2, you have a memory experience M that you
would express with “ I remember that q ”
•
In W3:
q happens at t1 & you witness it
you travel back in time earlier than t1 & have M
Intuitively:
M in W1 correctly represents W3
Relativist:
It does not
Causal self-reference view
Consider a subject S.
If M is a memory experience that S would express by
uttering “I remember that q”, then
there is a perceptual experience P that S would
express by uttering “I perceive that q” such that
The content of M is:
M was caused by P, which was caused by q
Some virtues of CSR

It deals with the W2 case
M in W1 turns out to represent W2 incorrectly
(In W2, M is not caused by anything.)

It deals with the W3 case
M in W1 turns out to represent W3 correctly
(In W3, M is caused by a perceptual
experience of q which is caused by q.)
Trouble with RAI
•
In W4:
1. P is not typically caused by q being the case
2. But q does cause P on this occasion
3. P causes M
W4
W1
P
P
P
CSR: M in W1 correctly represents W4
M
M
Intuitively: It does not
The veridical view
Consider a subject S.
Take a memory experience M that she would
express by uttering “I remember that q”.
There is a perceptual experience P that S would
express by uttering “I perceive that q”
such that the content of M is:
M is caused by P, which is veridical
Virtues of the veridical view

It deals with W2
M in W1 turns out to represent W2 incorrectly

It deals with W3
M in W1 turns out to correctly represent W3

It deals with W4
M in W1 turns out to represent W4 incorrectly
Temporal Awareness
In memory, remembered events are presented to us
as being in the Past
You apparently remember that q by being in cognitive
contact with the causal history of your memory
It is (presumably) nomologically necessary:
Events in the causal history of your memory are in the past
Temporal Awareness is the experience of events that,
as a matter of natural law, are in the past
But it is not the experience of time. It’s awareness of
origin or causal history