A. Rábano Gutiérrez
Neurosciences and History 2025;13(2): 116-129
Article type:Review
AUTHOR
A. Rábano Gutiérrez
Centro Alzheimer Fundación Reina Sofía – Fundación CIEN, Madrid, Spain.
ABSTRACT
This article, the fourth in a series dedicated to the science and philosophy of memory, and the third on its antecedents in the 20th century, briefly reviews three philosophical movements, focusing on some of their most representative thinkers: existential philosophy (Karl Jaspers), philosophical anthropology (Helmuth Plessner), and existential phenomenology (Maurice Merleau-Ponty). Although not all of these show a characteristic focus on memory, these philosophical perspectives are closely linked to relevant scientific and medical developments in the 20th century, particularly in the fields of neurology and psychiatry. Memory (whether normal or pathological) is always present in Jaspers’ philosophical and clinical thought, although it takes a secondary, deep, immanent position. Plessner, in turn, adopts the interpretation of memory of one of his masters, Hans Driesch, incorporating it into his own view of humans as living beings characterised by excentric positionality. Finally, the existential phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty does include an elaborate theory of memory, linked to the concepts of body, world, flesh, and chiasm, which were subsequently developed further by such other authors as M. Foucault and G. Deleuze. With this final journey through the work and thought of three fundamental authors of the 20th century, we conclude our review of the philosophical antecedents to 21st-century reflection on memory. Thus, the groundwork is laid for a historical analysis of the neuroscience of memory in the 20th century, which will be addressed in the next article in the series.
KEYWORDS
Philosophical anthropology, 20th-century philosophy, Jaspers, memory, Merleau-Ponty, Plessner
Neurosciences and History 2025;13(2): 116-129