THINQon : Memory as reality-the nature of memory

Study General Memory as reality-the nature of memory

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Tom Kimmel, Who am I to say that I am not the center of the...

Memory as reality-the nature of memory

Latest Post: November 17, 2011 at 9:04 PM

15 followers

It seems obvious that memory is a precondition to intellection. This is a paraphrase of Cogito ergo Sum, which I suspect has various interpretations.

So, if I concede that my view of the world is idiosyncratic to me, as I insist yours is to you, then the whole notion of an objective reality that does not depend on being seen, seems to loose its footing.

Can my memory be in error? Of course. Certainly. Its not so much what I didn't know that caused me so much trouble, but what I did know that was wrong.
I guess that I am trying to come up with a perspective that sees not only your inanity, but my own as well. I want a to see the big picture, a drawing of the whole. I suspect the whole is a consequence of the interaction of all its parts like hologram is a result of interference patterns.

Any interested in such perspective?

Cheers, Tom

George Browning sent kudos.

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william kensit

November 12, 2011 at 10:07 PM

6 followers

Read eye witness reports to any incident. Talk to other attendants to a meeting. Discuss past events at a family reunion. You begin to realize the fallibility of memory. When I read things like 'the truth of memory' I just shake my head. Scientists tell us that every time we withdraw a memory from the old vaults the memory we refile has been corrupted so that the next time we withdraw that memory it isn't the same. I once spent a few intense months in counselling, rehashing my life thru my memories and finding it an experience akin to running across a bog. Stop to examine a memory and sink to your waist in doubt. Re-examine that memory in a week or a month and find your view changed but unable to say whether the new memory, though obviously different, is more or less accurate than the previous version. I had to rehash memories with my sister and try to integrate hers with mine to try to approach a truth. In memory there are neither sureties nor truth.

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Linda OReilly

In response to william kensit

November 12, 2011 at 11:38 PM

88 followers

Yes. My sister and I have noticed that we 'remember' things that happened to each other--when the one who remembers isn't the one it actually happened to.
Wacky.
And I remember the day my grandfather died, I can see it. God knows how because he died six years before I was born.
I think that my mother told the story so well and that I was so young and impressionable when she told it that it just imprinted on my memory.
So much for accuracy.
But I love the way memories blend and mold around each other.
As long as you're aware of the nebulousness involved you can work with it.

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Graham A Nelson

In response to william kensit

November 13, 2011 at 12:24 AM

26 followers

Quite so, and this has an impact way beyond the embarrassment of finding that one's memory has failed in a particular case. I am thinking here about "self-image".

We are the sum total of our memories but our memories of what we have done are of dubious accuracy. And to compound that, our perception of the things that happened in our past, we may have interpreted them incorrectly at the time they occurred.

So, we are probably not who we think we are!