Memory in the Meditations

Out of the many mental activities Descartes examines in his Meditations, memory is not discussed at length. He says it a weak and limited faculty (AT57), and he considers it to be a liar when he subjects his entire world to doubt in the Second Meditation. In addition, when he examines the reality of the corporeal world in the Sixth Meditation, Descartes relies on memory to assist him in his reconstruction of outside objects.

Memory is not purely intellectual substance, but neither is it classified as extending substance. Memory is not pure thought, but neither is it perception. What is it? Perhaps it is best to go back to the Sixth Meditations and first ask what memory does for Descartes. In examining the existence of the body and its relation to the mind, Descartes uses memory to supply his imagination with sense-perceptions to consider. He uses the imagination and perception to examine the causes of error and determine whether sense-perception can be trusted. Fair enough, as long as Descartes doubts memory back in the Second Meditation along with everything else, this move is legitimate.

BUT, in the Second Meditation, it is clear that Descartes relies on memory. With it, he defines bodies (AT 26), a "me" for thought to be separable from (AT 27), and he posits that imagination is something which really exists and is part of his thinking (AT 29). This last point is most troubling. One cannot have an imagination without memory - Descartes says so himself in the Sixth Meditation (AT 74). Technically, Descartes says that sense-perception cannot get into the imagination without memory, but what else imagination if not memories of experiences, i.e. sense-perceptions? Descartes says imagination is not intellectual substance (AT 78), so it at bottom relies on the corporeal world rather than thinking. we can now classify memory as reliant on extending substance, if not extending substance itself.

What does this do for Descartes? When he doubts everything, he says he doubts the information memory gives him, but he still uses imagination and confirms it is real. He declares there is only thought, he never doubts that which he uses to get him to this conclusion. This raises major concerns as to the sincerity and validity of what Descartes is doing. Memory is such a huge aid to thought, that we should maybe be reluctant to declare that Descartes completely overlooked it. At any rate, it is a glaring problem in the Meditations, and leaves us wondering what Descartes was really after.