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Ross Poole
One of the tasks of memory is to make available to us knowledge that we have acquired in the past. Let us call this aspect of memory cognitive memory. This kind of memory clearly plays a crucial role in our life—as becomes apparent on those occasions w hen it lets us down. But by and large, and perhaps surprisingly, most of its time it does its job and the right piece of information comes to mind more or less when we need it. Cognitive memory has been of special concern to philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive scientists, who have fruitfully investigated how it works, how and where the information is stored, and how reliable it is. My concern in this paper will be different. There is another aspect of memory that is of equal importance: its role of transmitting responsibilities and commitments from the past. If cognitive memory tells us what we have learned in the past in order that we may better pursue our current projects, this aspect of memory—I will sometimes call it conative memory—constrains our pursuit of current projects. If cognitive memory is, by and large, good news, conative memory is, all too often, bad news. It reminds us of responsibilities that we have acquired and commitments that we have made, of that we ought to have done and did not, and it directs us toward certain actions that we have to do even though they conflict with our current desires and projects.
