Philosophy and Memory Traces Descartes to Connectionism [Paperback]

This study offers interpretations of theories of memory and the body from Descartes to Coleridge.Porous Memory defends two theories of autobiographical memory. One is a bewildering historical view of memories as dynamic patterns in fleeting animal spirits, nervous fluids which rummaged through the pores of brain and body. The other is new connectionism, in which memories are 'stored' only superpositionally, and reconstructed rather than reproduced. John Sutton juxtaposes historical and contemporary debates to show that psychology can attend to culture, complexity, self, and history.Porous Memory defends two theories of autobiographical memory. One is a bewildering historical view of memories as dynamic patterns in fleeting animal spirits, nervous fluids which rummaged through the pores of brain and body. The other is new connectionism, in which memories are 'stored' only superpositionally, and reconstructed rather than reproduced. John Sutton juxtaposes historical and contemporary debates to show that psychology can attend to culture, complexity, self, and history.Philosophy and Memory Traces defends two theories of autobiographical memory. One is a bewildering historical view of memories as dynamic patterns in fleeting animal spirits, nervous fluids that rummaged through the pores of brain and body. The other is new connectionism, in which memories are stored only superpositionally, and reconstructed rather than reproduced. John Sutton juxtaposes historical and contemporary debates to show that psychology can attend to culture, complexity, self, and history.List of figures; Preface; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction: traces, brains and history; Part I. Animal Spirits and Memory Traces: Introduction; 2. Wriggle-work: the quick and nimble animal spirits; 3. Memory and 'the Cartesian philosophy of the brain'; Part II. Inner Discipline: Introduction; 4. Spirit sciences, memory motions; 5. Cognition, chaos and control in English responses to Descartes' theory of l^