Vol. 40 No. 1 (2020)
Critical Notes

Observer memories and the perspectival mind: On Remembering from the Outside by Christopher McCarroll

PDF
  • Marina Trakas
Marina Trakas
IIF -SADAF - CONICET
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36446/af.2020.335

Published 2020-05-01

Keywords

  • Episodic Memory,
  • Observer Memory,
  • Visual Perspective,
  • Mental Imagery,
  • Theories of Memory,
  • Self-Presence
    • ...More
    Less
  • Memoria episódica,
  • Memoria de observador,
  • Perspectivas visuales,
  • Imagen mental,
  • Teorías de la memoria,
  • Presencia del yo
    • ...More
    Less
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Observer memories, memories where one sees oneself in the remembered scene, from-the-outside, are commonly considered less accurate and genuine than visual field memories, memories in which the scene remembered is seen as one originally experienced it. In Remembering from the Outside (OUP, 2019), Christopher McCarroll debunks this commonsense conception by offering a detailed analysis of the nature of observer memories.  On the one hand, he explains how observer and field perspectives are not really mutually exclusive in an experience, including memory experiences.  On the other hand, he argues that in observer memories there is no additional explicit representation of oneself experiencing the event: the self-presence is transparent and given by the mode of presentation.  Whereas these are two lines of strategic and original argumentation, they are not exempt of problems.  In this critical notice, I focus on the problematic aspects of McCarroll’s account.  I show that it presents some issues that affect the internal coherence of the overall framework, and that some aspects and central notions would have needed more development to offer a precise picture of the nature of observer memories.

PDF

References

  1. Bernecker, S. (2010). Memory: A philosophical study. Oxford University Press.
  2. Campbell, S. (2006). Our faithfulness to the past: Reconstructing memory value. Philosophical Psychology, 19(3), 361-380.
  3. Fernández, J. (2019). Memory: A self-referential account. Oxford University Press.
  4. Forbes, G. (n.d.). Frege’s problem: Referential opacity. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://www.iep.utm.edu/
  5. Habermas, T. (2012). Identity, emotion, and the social matrix of autobiographical memory: A psychoanalytic narrative view. In D. Berntsen & D. C. Rubin (Eds.), Understanding autobiographical memory (pp. 33-53). Cambridge University Press.
  6. Holmes, E. A., & Mathews, A. (2010). Mental imagery in emotion and emotional disorders. Clinical psychology review, 30(3), 349-362.
  7. Martin, C. B., & Deutscher, M. (1966). Remembering. The Philosophical Review, 75(2), 161-196.
  8. Michaelian, K. (2016). Mental time travel: Episodic memory and our knowledge of the personal past. The MIT Press.
  9. Michaelian, K., & Robins, S. K. (2018). Beyond the causal theory?: Fifty years after Martin and Deutscher. In K. Michaelian, D. Debus & D. Perrin (Eds.), New directions in the philosophy of memory (pp. 13-32). Routledge.
  10. O’Keefe, J., & Nadel L. (1978). The hippocampus as a cognitive map. Oxford University Press.
  11. Recanati, F. (2007). Perspectival thought: A plea for (moderate) relativism. Oxford University Press.
  12. Rowlands, M. (2017). Memory and the self: Phenomenology, science and autobiography. Oxford University Press.
  13. Schacter, D. L., & Addis, D. R. (2007). The cognitive neuroscience of constructive memory: Remembering the past and imagining the future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362(1481), 773-786.
  14. Sheen, M., Kemp, S., & Rubin, D. (2001). Twins dispute memory ownership: A new false memory phenomenon. Memory & Cognition, 29(6), 779-788.
  15. Sheen, M., Kemp, S., & Rubin, D. C. (2006). Disputes over memory ownership: What memories are disputed? Genes, Brain and Behavior, 5(S1), 9-13.
  16. Sutton, J. (1998). Philosophy and memory traces: Descartes to connectionism. Cambridge University Press.
  17. Sutton, J. (2010). Observer perspective and acentred memory: Some puzzles about point of view in personal memory. Philosophical Studies, 148(1), 27-37.
  18. Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. Oxford University Press.
  19. Valenti, G., Libby, L. K., & Eibach, R. P. (2011). Looking back with regret: Visual perspective in memory images differentially affects regret for actions and inactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(4), 730-737.