Teddy: Lenny, you can't trust a man's life to your little notes and pictures
Leonard: Why not?
Teddy: Because your notes could be unreliable
Leonard: Memory's unreliable (Memento, 2000). What is the true nature of knowledge? Is true knowledge found within the mind, in memory, or is it discovered through the senses and data derived from the external world? Christopher Nolan’s in his 2000 film Memento attempts to answer such a question through a man named Leonard Shelby. In the film, Leonard is tracking down a man named John G. who raped and murdered his wife. However, because of an accident, Leonard suffers from a rare and untreatable form of memory loss. While he can remember his life before the accident, he loses his memory periodically after every 15 minutes. Leonard’s condition makes him unable to form any new memories, and so in
…show more content…
This dispute is between two philosophical schools of epistemological thought: empiricism and rationalism. Empiricists argue that “sense experience is the ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge” (Markie, 2004). Whereas rationalists argue that “concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience” and use intuition as “a form of rational insight” (Markie, 2004). The empiricist/rationalist argument can even be extended over to the film Memento as Leonard, the empiricist, can only rely on his sense experience or the notes that he continuously writes to himself so that he can never really forget any vital piece of information. Yet, Leonard’s foil, Teddy, keeps warning Leonard that he shouldn’t depend his entire life on his “little notes and pictures” since sense experience, or experience derived from the senses, can also be unreliable (Memento, 2000). Teddy’s apparent warning is similar to the arguments of rationalists who say not to rely on the senses, and that true knowledge is gained independently of sense
Primo Levi once said, " Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument. The memories which lie within us are not carved in stone; not only do they tend to become erased as the years go by, but often they change, or even increase by incorporating extraneous features.." The memory of a human being is a fascinating matter, but it is not something that stays with us forever. Memories will often change or multiply with unnecessary information, but they are what define you as you.
it is seen that knowledge can hurt. It is also shown that sometimes one can know
This paper will be covering what knowledge essentially is, the opinions and theories of J.L. Austin, Descartes, and Stroud, and how each compare to one another. Figuring out what knowledge is and how to assess it has been a discussion philosophers have been scratching their heads about for as long as philosophy has been around. These three philosophers try and describe and persuade others to look at knowledge in a different light; that light might be how a statement claiming knowledge is phrased, whether we know anything at all for we may be dreaming, or maybe you’re just a brain in a vat and don’t know anything about what you perceive the external world to be.
Knowledge, its source and truthfulness have been under question for a long time. People have always wondered what exactly constitutes facts and if there are any defining laws that can be attributed to all knowledge or information available in the world. Many philosophers speculated on how information can be interpreted according to its falsity or truthfulness, but have not come to definite conclusions. Edmund Gettier has provided one of the key pieces in understanding and trying to figure out what knowledge really is.
The causes, symptoms, and treatments of amnestic disorders are correctly portrayed in the movie ‘Memento”. Amnestic disorders are a group of disorders that involve the loss of memories that were formerly well-known or the loss in the capability to generate new memories. It is bigger than forgetting where you put your keys or forgetting to pick up something from the store. This disorder can develop from structural damage to the brain which affects the blood vessels. This disorder can also develop from substance abuse such as from alcoholism, heavy drug use, or an exposure to environmental toxins. It can also happen from psychogenic causes such as a mental disorder or post-traumatic stress.
The film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind focuses on the interesting topic of memory. The film follows two main characters, Joel and Clementine, who have both chosen to erase part of their memory. What both characters, and other characters in the movie, find out though is that our memory is complex and very flexible to what we make of it. The film reflects the tendency that we have as humans, to think that we are in control of our memory. The truth is that our memory is not like a video tape of the events in our lives nor is it a library of the knowledge we have collected. As I watched the movie, I couldn’t help but think; our memory is more like a ball of clay. Our minds can take the clay and make it into a shape and we can stare at that shape and know that shape but our minds will play with that clay and mold it into something different eventually. The idea portrayed in the movie is that no memory is safe from our meddling minds.
The title of the film, Memento, is very appropriately titled. Leonard has to constantly keep reminders or mementos to remind him to do important things. He carries around a Polaroid camera to take pictures of places and people to remind him of who, what, or where they are located. One example would be the pictures he carries of Teddy, who is known as John Edward Gammell, and Natalie. He write note on the back of the pictures to remember important information about them. One of Leonard’s more extreme methods to remembering includes permanently tattooing facts that he finds important facts on himself. A retrieval cue is used to access information stored in our memories with the help of a hint. As stated before Leonard cannot form new memories and use retrieval cues is the traditional way that we use them, but he use the tattoos, notes, and photos to notify himself of information that he did not want to in essence “forget”. He could not recall fresh memories on his own, but he had a great method that would allow him access to bit of information that he could
There are two main schools of thought, or methods, in regards to the subject of epistemology: rationalism and empiricism. These two, very different, schools of thought attempt to answer the philosophical question of how knowledge is acquired. While rationalists believe that this process occurs solely in our minds, empiricists argue that it is, instead, through sensory experience. After reading and understanding each argument it is clear that empiricism is the most relative explanatory position in epistemology.
Philosophy uses a term for empirical knowledge, “posteriori”, meaning that knowledge is “dependent upon sense experience”. (Markie, 2008, section 1.2) Yet, philosophical empiricism is defined in such an absolute way; which causes philosophical empiricism to be an inaccurate philosophical position from which to address all aspects of human life. Philosophical empiricism is defined as “the belief that all human knowledge arises from sense experience.” (Nash, 1999, page 254) Yet, medical empiricism is so far to the other extreme as to be insulting, while this empiricism is still said to be based on all sensory experience; only the scientific sensory experience is valued and counted. This form of empiricism excludes the experience of non-scientific persons. This is just one manner in which empiricism has “proved inadequate to explain many important human ideas”. (Nash, 1999, page 254) I believe that human truth is in a combination of empiricism and rationalism. Although, sensory data can inform us of the external world; yet, reason gives humanity access to equally important intangibles.
Rationalism and empiricism were two philosophical schools in the 17th and 18th centuries, that were expressing opposite views on some subjects, including knowledge. While the debate between the rationalist and empiricist schools did not have any relationship to the study of psychology at the time, it has contributed greatly to facilitating the possibility of establishing the discipline of Psychology. This essay will describe the empiricist and rationalist debate, and will relate this debate to the history of psychology.
...dge to one or two of the other forms by suggesting that all three forms of knowledge are logically interdependent. He argues this interdependence through the context of beliefs, and objective truth, and communication. While there is a real-world example of how this theory could falter (i.e. autism), by expanding his theory to address this counterexample, Davidson’s three varieties of knowledge can actually go a long way in explaining how we come to understand the feelings, emotions, and mental states of others.
Memory is the tool we use to learn and think. We all use memory in our everyday lives. Memory is the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. We all reassure ourselves that our memories are accurate and precise. Many people believe that they would be able to remember anything from the event and the different features of the situation. Yet, people don’t realize the fact that the more you think about a situation the more likely the story will change. Our memories are not a camcorder or a camera. Our memory tends to be very selective and reconstructive.
Revenge is a very prominent theme in the thrilling postmodern film, Memento. In the film, Lenny kills an innocent drug dealer who was set up by Teddy to make money in the progress. This is because a normal life is not possible for him, due to his short term memory loss and his wife’s death. He is eager for revenge to keep going forward each day. The fragmented items in the beginning of the movie, Lenny’s constant shifts in perspective, and his stream of consciousness depicted in black and white all solidify his eagerness for revenge.
According to Sternberg (1999), memory is the extraction of past experiences for information to be used in the present. The retrieval of memory is essential in every aspect of daily life, whether it is for academics, work or social purposes. However, many often take memory for granted and assume that it can be relied on because of how realistic it appears in the mind. This form of memory is also known as flashbulb memory. (Brown and Kulik, 1977). The question of whether our memory is reliably accurate has been shown to have implications in providing precise details of past events. (The British Psychological Association, 2011). In this essay, I would put forth arguments that human memory, in fact, is not completely reliable in providing accurate depictions of our past experiences. Evidence can be seen in the following two studies that support these arguments by examining episodic memory in humans. The first study is by Loftus and Pickrell (1995) who found that memory can be modified by suggestions. The second study is by Naveh-Benjamin and Craik (1995) who found that there is a predisposition for memory to decline with increasing age.
The reader, like modern man, must not give into “the arrogant presumption of certitude or the debilitating despair of skepticism,” but instead must “live in uncertainty, poised, by the conditions of our humanity and of the world in which we live, between certitude and skepticism, between presumption and despair “(Collins 36).