“I Will Survive: Ockham on Memory, Persons, and Afterlife”

Guest Speaker: Susan Brower-Toland, St. Louis University

Location: Lory Student Center, Room 312

In this paper, I consider William Ockham’s account of memory with a view to understanding its implications for his broader account of the nature and persistence of human persons. As I’ll show, Ockham holds a view according to which memory is a kind of self-knowledge. What is more, I claim that this view of memory entails the existence of a single enduring self. This result is, I claim, significant, especially when taken in conjunction with Ockham’s account of the afterlife. For, according to Ockham, immediately after death, but prior to bodily resurrection, the disembodied soul is capable of first-person memory of its embodied experiences. This is significant since it entails that the rational soul serves as the enduring locus and subject of conscious human thought and memory. Taken at face value, however, this entailment appears to run against Ockham’s own commitment to a hylomorphic conception of human beings (as essentially material or embodied). I conclude by briefly exploring the prospects for reconciling this apparent tension in Ockham’s account of memory on the one hand, and the nature of human beings on the other.

Event contact: kenneth.shockley@colostate.edu