UDC

130.2

DOI

10.17238/issn2227-6564.2019.6.95

Authors

Yana V. Batalova
Lomonosov Moscow State University; Lomonosovskiy prosp. 27, korp. 4, GSP-1, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation;
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0814-1129 e-mail: yanabatalova@rambler.ru

Abstract

Turning to the works of European philosophy of the 20th century, this article considers the ability of imagination to influence the memory process. It is shown how the concept of memory as a process experiencing certain impact of imagination was developing, i.e. how a memory could be actualized in consciousness. The influence of imagination on cognitive acts was first thematised by I. Kant in his works, where he considers imagination to be an ability to form independent representations of reality. According to Kant, this ability is the key to cognition as such. This paper is therefore prefaced with a short analysis of Kant’s ideas, which were later developed by European philosophers. Further, the article presents a comparative review of memory concepts of the 20th century. Their common points are analysed on the basis of H. Bergson’s intuitionism, E. Husserl’s phenomenology and M. Mamardashvili’s philosophy of life. The author attempts to trace the intersection and continuity of the above-mentioned concepts of imagination and memory. This can shed some light on why asserting imagination’s importance for memory and analysing the epistemological aspect of this problem allow us to pose such pointed questions as matter– consciousness correlation and the status of memory as a constructed and modified mind experience that is being constantly changed. The paper presents the answers of Bergson, Husserl and Mamardashvili to the question of differentiating between imagination and remembering. In the course of the analysis, the author comes to the conclusion that imagination is inevitably involved in the process of remembering, which gives ground for considering modern generative memory theories (K. Michaelian, I. Hacking, and A. Hamilton) to be the most promising today, as they once again raise the questions of memory’s relation to imagination. They also address the possibility of turning to memory as a source of knowledge.

Keywords

Western philosophy, H. Bergson, E. Husserl, M. Mamardashvili, cognitive act, constructive memory, imagination in the act of remembering

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