Philosophy and Memory Traces: Descartes to ConnectionismPhilosophy and Memory Traces defends two theories of autobiographical memory. One is a bewildering historical view of memories as dynamic patterns in fleeting animal spirits, nervous fluids that rummaged through the pores of brain and body. The other is new connectionism, in which memories are "stored" only superpositionally, and reconstructed rather than reproduced. John Sutton juxtaposes historical and contemporary debates to show that psychology can attend to culture, complexity, self, and history. |
Contents
traces brains and history | 1 |
Animal spirits and memory traces | 21 |
Memory and the Cartesian philosophy of the brain | 50 |
Inner discipline | 115 |
Cognition chaos and control in English responses | 129 |
Local and distributed representations | 149 |
John Locke and the neurophilosophy of self | 157 |
The puzzle of survival | 177 |
The phantasmal chaos of association | 223 |
Associationism and neoassociationism | 240 |
Hartleys distributed model of memory | 248 |
Reid and Coleridge | 260 |
Connectionism and the philosophy of memory | 275 |
Attacks on traces | 298 |
Order confusion remembering | 317 |
| 323 | |
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Common terms and phrases
accept action active allow animal spirits argues association associationism body brain Cartesian causal causes central century chapter claim clear cognitive complex concept concern confusion connections context continuity critics culture depends Descartes describes direct discussion distinct distributed memory distributed models dynamic early effects example existence experience explain fact fluids Fodor forces functions Hartley human ideas identity images imagination important impressions independent individual input internal kind learning Locke Locke's material matter mechanism memory traces mental mind models of memory moral motions natural nerves notes objects organs particular past patterns perception philosophy physical physiology possible present problem processes psychological question rational reason reconstruction reference Reid rejection relations remembering representation responses retain seems sense simple soul specific storage stored structure suggest theories of memory theory things thinking thought tion traces