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Identifying memories...memory

Identify memories

When speaking about Henri Bergson's theory, we said that there are two memories: a motor memory and a purely psychological memory. Then we explained that evocation, like recognition, has two forms: a motor and a psychological one. As for identifying memories, it has only one form, which is the psychological form, because it is not the business of motor memories to They have a history, but how are memories determined?

Ribot likened the identification of memories in time to the identification of the locations of tangible objects in space. He said: If we want to specify the spatial dimension of a body, we add it to the intermediate things between us and it or to the things adjacent to it, and if we want to specify the temporal dimension of a matter, we add it to the events close to it, then we limit it between two terms: the first is advanced, and the second is posterior. Then we brought these two terms closer, little by little, to truly meet the matter that we wanted to define, and let us give an example of that: Suppose I now remembered my first trip to Alexandria. Defining this memory cannot be complete unless you add it to the events close to it. My first trip to Alexandria took place after World War I, and before my first trip to Paris, that is, after the year 1918 and before the year 1921. However, between these two borders there is a long period of time that invites me to search for two other borders that are closer to the matter to be determined, and I am still In this way, it goes from a long way to a close one, meeting the date of the anniversary that you want to specify.

However, (Henri Bergson) criticizes this method, and says: These two limits cannot be determined except after knowing the memory to be determined. Were it not for my vague feeling about the incident, it would not have been possible to limit its memory and determine its temporal dimension and determine it except by confirmation. Ribot's theory requires that there be two boundaries surrounding the incident, one before it and the other after it, but how can I find these two boundaries? If I had not had a strong feeling about the incident, I would have chosen two incidents that occurred before or after it from one side. The best way, then, to determine a memory is to delve into it, and to reveal by examining its parts a well-known situation with a specific date. For example: If I now remember a conversation that took place between me and one of my teachers, I reflect on this memory. I delved deeply into it, and conjured many comparative images of it, then I imagined the features of my teacher, the tone of his voice, his movements, his house in which we were on the seashore in the city of Beirut, and the heat that we endured in arriving at his house, so I would know then. I was there in the summer, and then I remember the topic of the conversation that took place between us, and I find that it was about (Shawqi) and the void he left in Arabic poetry, so I guess that was the year of Shawqi’s death. Thus, I use attention and reason to define time, and I do not reach it except by analyzing the memories themselves, because the matters added to the past are gathered around the signs of events, so they are combined with them, and are formed by their joining together into consistent sentences whose history cannot be guided except by analysis.