The science and philosophy of memory in the 21st century. Part III. Antecedents (2): three founders: Freud, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger

A. Rábano Gutiérrez
Neurosciences and History 2024;12(2):105-116

Type of article: REVIEW

AUTHOR

A. Rábano Gutiérrez
Centro Alzheimer Fundación Reina Sofía — Fundación CIEN, Madrid, Spain.

ABSTRACT

In this third part of the series, we will review the origin of the subject of the “two cultures” and its relevance for our inquiry, which involves a hermeneutic dialogue between philosophy and the sciences, rather than the construction of a mixed “third culture.” The main objective of this article is to present a brief, but essential, introduction to the figures of Freud, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger, the “founders” of three traditions of thought that remain alive in the 21st century. In each, memory and recall offer a therapeutic or emancipatory potential, and are key to addressing the “pathological” or “inauthentic” in personal and collective life. Whereas in Freud we find a theoretical model of memory (at the service of a therapeutic practice, psychoanalysis), Wittgenstein takes a critical attitude to the radical difference between the everyday, conventional use of the concepts of recall and memory (the realm of grammar) and, on the one hand, the associated natural and physiological processes (the realm of science), and on the other, their analysis through abstract mental or psychic concepts (the realm of “bad philosophy”). Finally, for Heidegger, memory or recall is a constituent element of the existential unity of human life, understood as Dasein.

KEYWORDS

Memory, Freud, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, 20th-century philosophy, the two cultures

Neurosciences and History 2024;12(2):105-116