Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T04:32:45.364Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Memory, belief and time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Brian Weatherson*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Abstract

I argue that what evidence an agent has does not supervene on how she currently is. Agents do not always have to infer what the past was like from how things currently seem; sometimes the facts about the past are retained pieces of evidence that can be the start of reasoning. The main argument is a variant on Frank Arntzenius’s Shangri La example, an example that is often used to motivate the thought that evidence does supervene on current features.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arntzenius, Frank. 2003. “Some Problems for Conditionalization and Reflection.” Journal of Philosophy 100 (7): 356370. 10.5840/jphil2003100729CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, David James. 2015. “Is Memory Merely Testimony from One’s Former Self?Philosophical Review 124 (3): 353392. doi: 10.1215/00318108-2895337.Google Scholar
Bernecker, Sven. 2008. The Metaphysics of Memory. New York: Springer. 10.1007/978-1-4020-8220-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burge, Tyler. 1993. “Content Preservation.” The Philosophical Review 102: 457488. 10.2307/2185680CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burge, Tyler. 1997. “Interlocution, Perception, and Memory.” Philosophical Studies 86 (1): 2147. 10.1023/A:1004261628340CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coady, C. A. J. 1995. Testimony: A Philosophical Study. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Dokic, Jérôme. 2001. “Is Memory Purely Preservative?” In Time and Memory. Issues in Philosophy and Psychology, edited by Hoerl, Christoph and McCormack, Teresa, 213232. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dummett, Michael. 1994. “Testimony and Memory.” In Knowing from Words, edited by Chakrabarti, A. and Matilal, B. K., 123. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Fricker, Elizabeth. 1994. “Against Gullibility.” In Knowing from Words, edited by Matilal, Bimal Krishna and Chakrabarti, Arindam, 125161. Dordrecht: Kluwer. 10.1007/978-94-017-2018-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Alvin. 1999. “Internalism Exposed.” The Journal of Philosophy 96 (6): 271293. 10.2307/2564679CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopnik, Alison, Sobel, David M., Schulz, Laura E., and Glymour, Clark. 2001. “Causal Learning Mechanisms in Very Young Children: Two-, Three-, and Four-year-olds Infer Causal Relations from Patterns of Variation and Covariation.” Developmental Psychology 37 (5): 620629. doi: 10.1037//0012-1649.37.5.620.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, Sue. 2001. Indian Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/actrade/9780192853745.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, Gilbert. 1986. Change in View. Cambridge, MA: Bradford.Google Scholar
Harris, Paul L., and Corriveau, Kathleen H.. 2011. “Young Children’s Selective Trust in Informants.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366: 11791187. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0321.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holton, Richard. 1999. “Intention and Weakness of Will.” The Journal of Philosophy 96 (5): 241262. 10.2307/2564667CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holton, Richard. 2009. Willing, Wanting, Waiting. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214570.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holton, Richard. 2014. “Intention as a Model for Belief.” In Rational and Social Agency: Essays on the Philosophy of Michael Bratman, edited by Vargas, Manuel and Yaffe, Gideon, 1237. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794515.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, Sophie. 2013. “Epistemic Akrasia.” Noûs Early View: 130. doi: 10.1111/nous.12026.Google Scholar
Jaswal, Vikram K., McKercher, David A., and VanderBorght, Mieke. 2008. “Limitations on Reliability: Regularity Rules in the English Plural and Past Tense.” Child Development 79 (3): 750760. 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01155.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kavka, Gregory S. 1983. “The Toxin Puzzle.” Analysis 43 (1): 3336 (Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koenig, Mellisa A., Clement, Fabrice, and Harris, Paul L.. 2004. “Trust in Testimony: Children’s Use of True and False Statements.” Psychological Science 15 (10): 694698. doi: 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00742.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lackey, Jennifer. 2005. “Memory as a Generative Epistemic Source.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 70 (3): 636658. 10.1111/phpr.2005.70.issue-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lackey, Jennifer. 2008. Learning from Words: Testimony as a Source of Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199219162.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasonen-Aarnio, Maria. 2010. “Is There a Viable Account of Well-founded Belief?Erkenntnis 72 (2): 205231. doi: 10.1007/s10670-009-9200-z.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasonen-Aarnio, Maria. 2014a. “The Dogmatism Puzzle.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 92 (3): 417432. doi: 10.1080/00048402.2013.834949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasonen-Aarnio, Maria. 2014b. “Higher-order Evidence and the Limits of Defeat.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 88 (2): 314345. 10.1111/phpr.2014.88.issue-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, David. 1996. “Elusive Knowledge.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 74 (4): 549567. doi: 10.1080/00048409612347521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malmgren, Anna-Sara. 2006. “Is There a Priori Knowledge by Testimony?Philosophical Review 115 (2): 199241. 10.1215/00318108-115-2-199CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moss, Sarah. 2012. “Updating as Communication.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 85 (2): 225248. doi: 10.1111/j.1933-1592.2011.00572.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryor, James. 2004. “What’s Wrong with Moore’s Argument?Philosophical Issues 14: 349378. 10.1111/phis.2004.14.issue-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saffran, Jenny R., Aslin, Richard N., and Newport, Elissa L.. 1996a. “Statistical Learning by 8-month-old Infants.” Science 274 (5294): 19261928. 10.1126/science.274.5294.1926CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saffran, Jenny R., Aslin, Richard N., and Newport, Elissa L.. 1996b. “Word Segmentation: The Role of Distributional Cues.” Journal of Memory and Language 35: 606621. 10.1006/jmla.1996.0032CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, Frederick F. 2006. “Testimonial Justification and Transindividual Reasons.” In The Epistemology of Testimony, edited by Lackey, Jennifer and Sosa, Ernest, 193224. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sgaravatti, Daniele. 2012. “Down to Earth Philosophy: An Anti-exceptionalist Essay on Thought Experiments and Philosophical Methodology.” PhD thesis, University of St Andrews.Google Scholar
Steup, Matthias. 2013. “Is Epistemic Circularity Bad?Res Philosophica 90 (2): 215235. doi: 10.11612/resphil.2013.90.2.8. 10.11612/resphil.2013.90.2.8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tetlock, Philip E., and Gardner, Dan. 2015. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction. New York: Crown.Google Scholar
Titelbaum, Michael. 2014. Quitting Certainties: A Bayesian Framework for Modeling Degrees of Belief. Oxford: Oxford.Google Scholar
Weatherson, Brian. 2012. “Knowledge, Bets and Interests.” In Knowledge Ascriptions, edited by Brown, Jessica and Gerken, Mikkel, 75103. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693702.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Roger. 2005. “Explanation as a Guide to Induction.” Philosophers’ Imprint 5 (2): 129.Google Scholar
Williamson, Timothy. 2000. Knowledge and Its Limits. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Timothy. 2004. “Warrant for Nothing (and Foundations for Free)?Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary 78 (1): 167212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Crispin. 2002. “(Anti-)Sceptics Simple and Subtle: G.E. Moore and John McDowell.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 65 (2): 330348. doi: 10.1111/j.1933-1592.2002.tb00205.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar