How do we know our memories are really memories?

Question

imagination.

Answer 1

We don't!! :)

We don't *know* for sure.. It's possible that we actually don't even have bodies, we could be brains in a jar somewhere that are being stimulated externally with data that we perceive as our own memories. Descrates pointed this out in the Meditations- he concluded that memory itself is fallible.

We can talk about the (un)likelihood of such scenarios and the rationale for powerful beings going to such lengths to deceive us etc, but the bottom line is that memories aren't something which we have absolute certainty about.

His idea was that in order to find that which is true, we must doubt everything which possibly can be doubted, and memory certainly falls into that category.

This ultimately led to his famous statement "I think, therefore I am" (Cogito ergo sum)

The only thing of which one can be absolutely certain is one's own existence, because it doesn't rely upon anything else- it's the one thing which cannot be doubted. The very act of questioning one's existence means that someone is doing the questioning....

Answer 2

That is a difficult question to answer because we all know that we can be fooled on memory, yet we know for sure that we have valid memories (as we can be fooled on certain facts, but we know for certain that others are true).

It could be said generally that there is a type of thinking where you think that you know but are wrong; and another level where you know that you know, and you are right, and you know that you are right (even though this cannot be defined formally, most people I think would know what I am talking about when I say that).

To give an example of that in real-life, there are people who *think* that they are part of an in-group, but really are not, but are the constant butt of those really in the in-group; and there are those really in the in-group, who validly know that they are in that.

I know that this is a rather round-about example used to express the idea and attempt to answer your question, and I think most people who have had experience with social situations would know what I am talking about with that example, but to provide a formal philosophical explanation that allows us to distinguish the two levels of certitude there, I doubt is possible.

There are certain domains and problems in existence that cannot be accessed through any methodology of philosophical science - since in certain modes, our understanding of philosophical problems has limits.




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Answer 3

We don't always know, it's a game of odds. It's very likely that my "memory" of my wedding day was of mine and not someone else's. But my memory of the face of the guy who mugged me 10 years ago is prob altered by the passage of time. I can only assume it's mostly true

Answer 4

Memories are memories because you remember them and they really happened to you. I mean, have you ever heard of anyone confused if what he remembers is real or just his imagination?

Answer 5

It could be that our memories are in fact the reality. Also when we dream. Our awakening thoughts and actions could be our subconcious trying to make sense of it all.

Answer 6

Because they would have had some significance to you at the time that made them stick in your mind while most details evaded you, something pertinent to your life or to your thoughts.

Answer 7

unless you believe in the past life and they are fragments of a life far away we recollect....

then memories are just wts left of our past present life

Answer 8

If you figure this out email and let me know.

I have wondered about this for years.

Nice to see that I am not the only one.

love and blessings Don

Answer 9

They must be or you would not have remembered to come back and read the responses to your question.

Answer 10

If we can remember it without a doubt or question about it.