The metasemantics of memory

Philosophical Studies 153 (1):95-107 (2011)
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Abstract

In Sven Bernecker’s excellent new book, Memory, he proposes an account of what we might call the “metasemantics” of memory: the conditions that determine the contents of the mental representations employed in memory. Bernecker endorses a “pastist externalist” view, according to which the content of a memory-constituting representation is fixed, in part, by the “external” conditions prevalent at the time of the tokening of the original representation. Bernecker argues that the best version of a pastist externalism about memory contents will have the result that there can be semantically-induced memory losses in cases involving unwitting “world-switching”. The burden of this paper is to show that Bernecker’s argument for this conclusion does not succeed. My arguments on this score have implications for our picture of mind-world relations, as these are reflected in a subject’s attempts to recall her past thoughts.

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Sanford Goldberg
Northwestern University

Citations of this work

Memory. A philosophical study. [REVIEW]Marina Trakas - 2012 - Grazer Philosophische Studien - International Journal for Analytic Philosophy 86 (1):296-300.

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References found in this work

Content preservation.Tyler Burge - 1993 - Philosophical Review 102 (4):457-488.
Memory: A Philosophical Study.Sven Bernecker - 2009 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Externalism and Knowledge of Content.John Gibbons - 1996 - Philosophical Review 105 (3):287.
Internalism and externalism in semantics and epistemology.Sanford Goldberg (ed.) - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.

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