In my dissertation I explore semantic memory and its importance for cognition while providing critical examination of the current most widely accepted understanding of semantic memory. I then propose a novel approach to semantic memory that avoids many of the challenges and pitfalls of current semantic memory theory while opening up new avenues for research. 

Within philosophy of memory work has been predominantly dedicated to developing theories of episodic memory and remembering with far less attention dedicated to the other proposed systems and functions. Focus on episodic memory, though, has come at the expense of robust philosophical treatments of other forms of memory. For instance, though distinguishing between episodic and semantic memory remains a key concept in contemporary cognitive science and philosophy, semantic memory has not been given a direct philosophical treatment in the literature despite its importance to a wide range of topics. 

Among other factors at play, the relative lack of research on semantic memory in the philosophy of memory may be due to the influence of a widely accepted, yet seldom thoroughly analyzed view of semantic memory. This orthodox view of semantic memory throughout the philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences holds that semantic memory is a dedicated storage space of facts about the world, containing such things as the meanings and use of words, languages, and information about the world or a given situation as well as personal information. It is furthermore, assumed to be the product of a chronic, unconscious mechanism of abstraction and generalization, likely taking place during periods of inactivity, or at encoding. 

But acceptance of the orthodox view of semantic memory belies fundamental issues with its conception. For instance, sustained issues surrounding the nature of abstraction and generalization mechanisms, neuroanatomical structure, location, and existence of memory storage systems have persisted despite continued research predicated on their existence. Moreover, the most widely accepted view of mnemonic traces as distributed and superpositional storage of memories have been shown to be in tension with a contentful conception of traces, thus undermining the orthodox view of semantic memory as a storage space of explicit facts. Additionally, the increasingly influential radical enactive approach to cognition has made recent inroads in memory research. Reassessment of standard notions of semantic memory are thus required to accommodate the hostility of the radical enactive approach to stored content. Recent developments such as these in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, as well as the apparent role of semantic memory in nearly all cognitive endeavors such as future oriented thought, counterfactual future thinking, and imagination, open an important space for an analysis of semantic memory. 

Against this I propose a non-storage based, contentless memory trace framework. I argue for a proceduralist view of semantic memory that incorporates aspects of multi-trace memory frameworks, and burgeoning enactive memory approaches for a constructive approach to semantic memory. This approach provides a framework for semantic memory that seeks to integrate multiple bodies of research and provides us with new tools for tackling long standing conceptual issues of semantic memory while opening new avenues for discussion.