Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Mind Research Interest Group Talk (Kourken Michaelian, Grenoble)

The Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Mind Research Group welcomes Kourken Michaelian, a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Grenoble. Dr. Michaelian’s research focuses on the philosophy of memory, defending a simulation theory holding that no causal connection to an event is necessary to remember it.

Talk Title

Radicalizing Simulationism: Remembering as Imagining the (Nonpersonal) Past

Talk Abstract

According to the simulation theory of memory, to remember is to imagine an event from the personal past. McCarroll has recently argued that simulationism is unable to account either for forgetting or for infantile amnesia. While this chapter will demonstrate that the simulation theory is in fact able to account for both phenomena, its implications with respect to infantile amnesia, in particular, do suggest that modifications to the theory are in order. Existing simulationisms presuppose that one can only remember the events of the personal past. This presupposition now appears to be unmotivated, and the chapter therefore proposes a radicalized simulation theory that holds that to remember is simply to imagine an event from the past, regardless of whether that event belongs to the personal past.

About the Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind Research Group

One of six departmental research interest groups, the Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind Group undertakes research in philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science, traditional and formal epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of language.