q-Memory (Parfit)

"I am q-remembering an experience if
(1) I have a belief about a past experience which seems in itself like a memory belief,
(2) someone did have such an experience, and
(3) my belief is dependent upon this experience in the same way ... in which a memory of an experience is dependent upon it." (P 297 b)

Example:

I q-remember seeing Elaine in a wheelchair.

What this means is:

1a. I have a belief (call it B) that I saw Elaine in a wheelchair.
1b. B feels like a memory.
2. Someone (e.g., RL) did experience seeing Elaine in a wheelchair. (Call this experience E.)
3. B is "dependent upon" E in the right way, e.g., E caused B by storing information in a brain.
Notice that nothing here requires that "I" am "RL."


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Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 25 November 2002