Descartes and intellectual memory

Authors

  • Diego Fabián Díaz Quiroz Alberto Hurtado University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ef.n64a06

Keywords:

Descartes, corporeal memory, intellectual memory, theology, philosophy

Abstract

This article investigates the doctrine of intellectual memory in Descartes. In his writings, Descartes recognized not only a bodily memory, explainable in purely physiological terms, but also an intellectual or spiritual memory. In this article, I investigate whether Descartes postulated an intellectual memory for theological reasons or for philosophical reasons. From the analysis of certain texts in which Descartes explains what intellectual memory is, the paper will show that Descartes appeals, for strictly philosophical reasons, to intellectual memory to explain some processes of reminiscence that occur in the human being. In contrast to what some contemporary commentators on the Cartesian doctrine of memory have argued, Descartes’s motivations for postulating intellectual memory are not theological.

 

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Author Biography

Diego Fabián Díaz Quiroz, Alberto Hurtado University

Graduate in Philosophy (Alberto Hurtado University, Chile), Master in Philosophy (Alberto Hurtado University, Chile). The titles of the bachelor's and master's theses are, respectively: The role of imagination in Descartes (2015), and Intellectual memory in Descartes (2019). Member of "Clio", group of studies on the history of philosophy, organized by the Alberto Hurtado University.

References

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Published

2021-07-30

How to Cite

Díaz Quiroz, D. F. (2021). Descartes and intellectual memory. Estudios De Filosofía, (64), 123–138. https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ef.n64a06