Yesterday I intended to print a document, loaded the paper tray, and then got sidetracked by a phone call. I forgot about the print job. This morning I falsely remembered having printed the document and then wasted time searching for it.
What philosophical juice might one squeeze from this lemon?
1) Not all memories could be false. If all memories were false, then one could not know, using memory, that some memories are false. But I do know, by memory, the truth that some memories are false. Therefore, it is not possible that all memories be false.
2) If presentism is the view that only temporally present events exist, and that wholly past and wholly future events do not exist, then the above example shows that presentism thus defined cannot be true. For I now veridically remember yesterday's intention to print the document, yesterday's loading of the tray, and yesterday's phone call. These events occurred, and I now know they occurred; hence they cannot now be nothing.
Recent Comments