Debus D (2026)
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2026
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Edited Volumes: The Routledge Handbook of Introspection
ISBN: 9781003393269
In his Confessions, Augustine reports that when turning his attention inwards, ‘I come to the fields and vast palaces of memory, where are stored the innumerable images of material things brought to it by the senses’ (bk X, ch. VIII, §12). This suggests a very close link between memory and introspection. In order to elucidate the relation between memory and introspection, I here take inspiration from this Augustinian picture and develop and defend the following three claims: (1) When, in everyday contexts, we introspect our mental lives at all, we usually do so in order to examine our memories. (2) Introspection requires stable memories, but (3) introspection can change (and thus destabilize) memories. I show that and why each of these claims is true. However, there is a clear tension between claims (2) and (3), and I show that in the face of this tension, in order for introspection of memories to be possible at all, we need to resist the tendency to examine our memories with force and vigor; in order to be able to examine our memories in introspection at all, we need to examine them gently and handle our memories with great care.
APA:
Debus, D. (2026). Walking Through the ‘Fields and Vast Palaces of Memory’: On Some Connections Between Memory and Introspection. In Anna Giustina (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Introspection. Taylor and Francis.
MLA:
Debus, Dorothea. "Walking Through the ‘Fields and Vast Palaces of Memory’: On Some Connections Between Memory and Introspection." The Routledge Handbook of Introspection. Ed. Anna Giustina, Taylor and Francis, 2026.
BibTeX: Download