Does episodic memory imply mentally travelling back in time?

MARINA TRAKAS

Peterborough

Seminario; Internal seminar - Department of Philosophy; 2021

Department of Philosophy - Trent University

Through the history of philosophical and scientific thought, different metaphors have been used to understand how memory works. Among them, the notion of mental time travel (MTT) appeared almost 40 years ago, and has become in recent years a powerful metaphor widely used in science and philosophy of memory. In this talk, I explore the notion of MTT in order to determine if it is a good characterization of personal memory and, in particular, of its phenomenology. For this purpose, I compare it with the notion of time travel (TT): if the notion of MTT is supposed to explain personal memory and constitute a good metaphor, personal memory should be a kind of TT that takes place in the mind, so it should share similar properties with the notion of TT from which it originates. My analysis shows nonetheless that not only are there many dissimilarities between TT and MTT so that memory cannot be conceived as a TT that happens in the mind, but also that personal memory does not necessarily involve MTT. This raises serious concerns about the appropriateness and utility of the notion of MTT to characterize personal memory.