Memory and imagination
Memory is defined as a mental faculty that helps store perceptions and daily events that a person experiences, and retrieve them when necessary and needed. Imagination is also a mental faculty that creates new and unrealistic images and events.
There is a natural relationship between memory and imagination, but from a philosophical perspective, philosophers have argued about this relationship and defined a concept for each of them. Here and in this article we will present to you some philosophical opinions of the most important schools and theories about the dialectics of memory and imagination.
Memory from a philosophical perspective
Physical physiological theory
The proponents of this theory, represented by Barbeau, believe that memory exists in the individual, where it is stored and retrieved in the individual himself, and that it is of an individual, material nature present in the brain. The evidence for this is that when brain cells are affected by any accident or damage, it leads to memory loss.
Ribot divided memory at the brain level into three sections: sensory memory, which is stored quickly and quickly forgotten; short-term memory, which requires its owner to pay attention to the things he wants to memorize; and long-term memory, which requires exerting effort in contemplating and contemplating the perceptions he wants to fix on. Brain level without forgetting it.
The psychological theory represented by Bergson
The prominent figures of this theory say that memory is of an individual, psychological nature, not physical, because all memories are stored in the human soul, and they proved this by assuming that there are people who lose their memories without any brain injury, as they confirmed that the psychological trauma that... A person is afflicted with it, which helps him retrieve memories. Therefore, Bergson divided memory into two types: motor memory, which means motor memories based on repetition, such as getting used to writing, and psychological memory.
Read also:Subject matter of the rights of the neighborFrom Bergson's perspective, it represents the origin of storing and recalling past events, because it is linked to the psychological and emotional conditions that the individual is going through. An example of this is when witnessing a bloody accident in the individual's childhood, it will affect him greatly, and those images that he saw go down to the depths of the soul, or what... It is called the deep ego, and it reappears on the emotional scene when another incident is witnessed.
Social theory
The proponents of this theory, represented by Halffax, believe that memory is not of an individual nature, whether physical or psychological, but rather of a social nature. All memories are stored in the memory of society. For example, when recalling memories, the individual seeks help from members of the group to help him remember. For example, when a fighter remembers events The war, because he cannot remember it all; Therefore, he seeks the help of other fighters who were with him in order to remember each stage, and their evidence for this is the language and culture shared between a group of people.
Imagination from a philosophical perspective
Empirical theory
The leading figures of this theory, represented by David Hume, see that imagination is nothing but a mere synthesis of what is in sensory experience and the external world, and derives its elements from this reality and nothing more. For example, when imagining a horse with wings, this imagination does not go beyond the limits of reality, because imagination is a synthesis of the wing and the horse that... They are taken from reality or experience, and the mind does not go beyond the limits of the data of reality and experience, and does not have any ability to innovate and create topics that are not from reality.
Read also:How to write a successful articlePhenomenological theory
The proponents of this position, which Sartre represents, believe that a person is capable of imagining different things and topics without having a relationship with experience or external reality, as is the case with the empiricists, and that imagination is not always linked to reality, but rather is linked to the individual’s feeling and psychological state, meaning that imagination is not Just knowledge, and that the act of thinking is not the same as the act of imagination, because knowledge and thinking touch on known concepts and topics, while imagination assumes non-existent matter.
