Is It Possible to Have Episodic Memories During Non-lucid Dreams?
Synthese Library 2024 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-68204-9_10 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Lucid dreaming |
| Key points | Argues that, assuming episodic memory requires being 'disposed to take the relevant experience into account when judging about the past' (Debus 2010), it is 'probably not' possible to have episodic memories during dreams. Accepting dream episodic memory would require believing, contra Sosa (2007), that we can actually make judgments during dreams, retain a fairly high degree of rationality while dreaming, and can refer to the past at all when we dream. |
Abstract
AbstractThe purpose of this paper is not to show that the answer to the question in the title is ‘no’, but to show that it is ‘probably not’, at least on one particular theory of memory. Assuming that an experience will only be an episodic memory if we are ‘disposed to take the relevant experience into account when judging about the past’ (Debus, Accounting for epistemic relevance: A new problem for the causal theory of memory. American Philosophical Quarterly, 47:17–29, 2010, p. 25), there are many obstacles to answering the question in the affirmative. If one holds that it is possible to have episodic memories during dreams, they will have to accept more implications than may be palatable. Specifically, they will have to believe, contra Sosa (A virtue epistemology: Apt belief and reflective knowledge (Vol. I). Clarendon Press, 2007), that we can actually make judgments during dreams and not just imagine doing so; that we retain a fairly high degree of rationality during dreams; and that there is a respectable sense in which we can refer to the past at all when we dream.