WOK: Memory

Memory is a Way of Knowing that many students overlook. This gives you the opportunity to say something unique if choosing to discuss it in your ToK essays and presentations. As with the other WoKs, a starting point to your discussion might be to define what memory actually is. We need to go beyond definitions such as ‘knowing what happened before’ as these are not very helpful for critically examining memory. One way of defining memory is as the faculty which allows us to retain information and reconstruct past experiences – although like everything else in ToK, it is up to you to think about this definition critically!

If you do choose to discuss memory in your work, it might be worth referring to an on-going discussion surrounding the status of this Way of Knowing. Some argue that memory is not actually a Way of Knowing itself. They claim that memory is simply the recollection of things we already know. In response to this it might be worth considering to relevant points. One is raised by the psychology of memory. Many people, when thinking of memories, imagine a tape that is recorded as we live our lives, and played back when we wish to remember something, however, this is not really the case. Whenever we notice an experience it is encoded into the memory. However, each time we recall that memory we re-encode it. That is, if you remember an experience from your childhood, it is not the ‘original’ experience that you are recalling! Instead you are accessing the memory which was encoded the last time you thought about that thing. This theory helps to explain why memories are not completely reliable – if you were to photocopy a photograph every time you wanted to look at it, and only were able to keep the copy, how much detail would remain? A second point worth considering is the importance of memory in gaining new knowledge. We do not gain new knowledge in a vacuum. Our past experiences affect how our new experiences are interpreted. Because of this, memory is a huge part of how we gain knowledge at any moment in time.

If you want to discuss memory, it might be worth talking about illnesses that affect our faculties. Dementia affects many people as they grow older, and it is particularly important not to forget Alzheimer’s which affects a growing proportion of many countries with ageing populations. You might consider using these illnesses to think about how memory might not be a particularly reliable Way of Knowing. It might then be worth discussing how billions of people rely on their memories every day of their lives.