...a memory we consciously recall, and a kind of bodily memory.
You don’t have to consciously think about how to ride a bicycle every time. Your body “knows” how. The past doesn’t simply vanish. It continues to operate in the present and can become embodied in our actions and habits. 2. Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The body remembers Maurice Merleau-Ponty comes even closer to the concept of *reveries*. To put it simply: our body is not merely an object we possess. We experience the world through it. A gesture can therefore express something before we put it into words. Think of someone who suddenly becomes nervous, even though they don’t yet know why themselves. Or a specific movement someone always makes when they are sad. The body can, in a sense, say: “I know something that your consciousness doesn’t know yet.” 3. Paul Ricoeur: Identity arises through memory and narrative Memory, forgetting, and personal identity. A person is not simply a collection of traits. We understand our own lives by turning them into a story: This happened to me. Then that happened. That is why I am the way I am today. If this story is destroyed, identity becomes unstable.
Yael
10d ago
Reverie
1. Henri Bergson: Memory isn’t just in the head
...a memory we consciously recall, and a kind of bodily memory.
You don’t have to consciously think about how to ride a bicycle every time. Your body “knows” how.
The past doesn’t simply vanish. It continues to operate in the present and can become embodied in our actions and habits.
2. Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The body remembers
Maurice Merleau-Ponty comes even closer to the concept of *reveries*.
To put it simply: our body is not merely an object we possess. We experience the world through it.
A gesture can therefore express something before we put it into words.
Think of someone who suddenly becomes nervous, even though they don’t yet know why themselves.
Or a specific movement someone always makes when they are sad.
The body can, in a sense, say:
“I know something that your consciousness doesn’t know yet.”
3. Paul Ricoeur: Identity arises through memory and narrative
Memory, forgetting, and personal identity.
A person is not simply a collection of traits. We understand our own lives by turning them into a story:
This happened to me.
Then that happened.
That is why I am the way I am today.
If this story is destroyed, identity becomes unstable.