The ownership of memories

Abstract

Is there such a thing as experiencing a memory as one’s own? I argue that the phenomenon of disowned memory gives us a reason to believe that memories carry a sense of mineness. I challenge the view that the sense of mineness for a memory is the feeling of being identical with the witness of the remembered scene, and I put forward an alternative proposal. According to it, the sense of mineness for a memory is the experience of the memory as matching the past. I argue that the alternative proposal makes better sense of the available reports of disowned memory. I conclude by offering some considerations on how the proposed account could accommodate other cases of disowned conscious states.