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Single Idea 22976

[filed under theme 18. Thought / B. Mechanics of Thought / 5. Mental Files ]

Full Idea

In memory everything is preserved separately, according to its category.

Gist of Idea

Memories are preserved separately, according to category

Source

Augustine (Confessions [c.398], X.08)

Book Ref

Augustine: 'Confessions', ed/tr. Pine-Coffin,R.S. [Penguin 1961], p.214

A Reaction

This strikes me as the first seeds of the idea that the mind functions by means of mental files. Our memories of cats are 'close to' or 'linked to' our memories of dogs.

Related Ideas

Idea 6160 Does Kant say the mind imposes categories, or that it restricts us to them? [Rowlands on Kant]

Idea 15703 Memories often conform to a theory, rather than being neutral [Gelman]

The 33 ideas from Augustine

16702 All things are in the present time to God [Augustine]
3912 I must exist in order to be mistaken, so that even if I am mistaken, I can't be wrong about my own existence [Augustine]
6683 The contact of spirit and body is utterly amazing, and incomprehensible [Augustine]
22887 If God existed before creation, why would a perfect being desire to change things? [Augustine, by Bardon]
22888 To be aware of time it can only exist in the mind, as memory or anticipation [Augustine, by Bardon]
22976 Memories are preserved separately, according to category [Augustine]
22978 Memory is so vast that I cannot recognise it as part of my mind [Augustine]
22977 I can distinguish different smells even when I am not experiencing them [Augustine]
22979 Three main questions seem to be whether a thing is, what it is, and what sort it is [Augustine]
22980 Memory contains innumerable principles of maths, as well as past sense experiences [Augustine]
22983 We would avoid remembering sorrow or fear if that triggered the emotions afresh [Augustine]
22982 Why does joy in my mind make me happy, but joy in my memory doesn't? [Augustine]
22981 Mind and memory are the same, as shown in 'bear it in mind' or 'it slipped from mind' [Augustine]
22984 Without memory I could not even speak of myself [Augustine]
22985 Everyone wants happiness [Augustine]
5976 If God is outside time in eternity, can He hear prayers? [Augustine]
5977 Heaven and earth must be created, because they are subject to change [Augustine]
5979 If the past is no longer, and the future is not yet, how can they exist? [Augustine]
5978 I know what time is, until someone asks me to explain it [Augustine]
5981 The whole of the current year is not present, so how can it exist? [Augustine]
5980 How can ten days ahead be a short time, if it doesn't exist? [Augustine]
5982 If the future does not exist, how can prophets see it? [Augustine]
5983 I disagree with the idea that time is nothing but cosmic movement [Augustine]
5984 Maybe time is an extension of the mind [Augustine]
16588 I prefer a lack of form to mean non-existence, than to think of some quasi-existence [Augustine]
4348 Love, and do what you will [Augustine]
22117 Our minds grasp reality by direct illumination (rather than abstraction from experience) [Augustine, by Matthews]
22167 Our images of bodies are not produced by the bodies, but by our own minds [Augustine, by Aquinas]
22118 Augustine created the modern concept of the will [Augustine, by Matthews]
7821 Pagans produced three hundred definitions of the highest good [Augustine, by Grayling]
22119 Augustine said (unusually) that 'ought' does not imply 'can' [Augustine, by Matthews]
22116 Augustine identified Donatism, Pelagianism and Manicheism as the main heresies [Augustine, by Matthews]
19338 Augustine said evil does not really exist, and evil is a limitation in goodness [Augustine, by Perkins]