January 11th–12th, 2027

The rich, multidimensional representations by which we remember events in our personal past share key features with those by which we imagine future, counterfactual, or other situations. These include overlapping neural bases, shared construction operations, and perhaps continuities in representational format and semantic profile too.

This workshop addresses two broad sets of questions. The first concerns the semantics of these representations: what determines their subject matter; what does their accuracy consist in; what contributions are made by trace-indexes, gists, and schemas? The second concerns their format: are such representations built compositionally; do they have a syntax; what is the role of mental imagery; are there forms of remembering or imagining that do not employ such representations at all? Answers to both sets of questions bear on many other issues: the function(s) of a purported episodic system, or the effects of ageing and conditions such as depression.

The workshop aims to make progress on these questions by bringing together philosophers and psychologists working on memory, imagination, and mental representation.

The workshop is funded by an NTU Start-Up Grant and also a Merlion Workshop grant held in conjunction with Kourken Michaelian (Centre for Philosophy of Memory, Grenoble).