All the buttons on the main page rest on an historically image which reflect the phenomenon on which this course focuses: memory. Here are descriptions of those images, and their significance to memory.

The Waxen Seal

The wax seal is one of the most ubiquitous models of memory in the ancient philosophic literature. Aristotle predominantly uses the wax seal as his model of memory (see "On Memory"), but Plato presents it in his standard dialogue form:

Socrates: Imagine, then, for the sake of argument, that our minds contain a block of wax, which in this or that individual may be larger or smaller, and composed of wax that is comparatively pure or muddy, and harder in some, softer in others, and sometimes of just the right consistency.
Theatatus: very well
S: Let us call it the gift of the Muses’ mother, Memory, and say that whenever we wish to remember something we see of hear or conceive in our own minds, we hold this wax under the perceptions of ideas and imprint them on it as we might stamp the impression of a seal ring. Whatever is so imprinted we remember and know so long as the image remains; whatever is rubbed out or has not succeeded in leaving an impression we have forgotten and do not know. (Theatatus, 191c)

This model is so pervasive it has become embedded in our language. For example, when someone is memorable, we say they "made an impression on me." This phrase is, strictly speaking, a metaphor. But we are not usually aware of that when we use the phrase.

The Aviary

The image in the upper left corner, behind the word 'Inquiry' is a photo of Saint Louis Zoo Aviary, built in 1904 for the World's Fair. The same image appears behind the green 'Board' button. Plato used an aviary as a model for knowledge and memory in the Theatatus:

(197d) Socartes: ...Just a while ago we imagined a sort of waxen block in our minds, so now let us suppose that every mind contains a kind of aviary stocked with birds of every sort, some in flocks apart from the rest, some in small groups, and some in solitary, flying in any direction among them all.
Theatatus: Be it so. What follows?
S: When we are babies we must suppose that this receptacle is empty, and take the birds to stand for pieces of knowledge. Whenever a person acquires any piece of knowledge and shuts it up in his enclosure, we must say he has learned or discovered the thing of which this is the knowledge, and that is what ‘knowing’ means.
T: Be it so.
S: Now think of him hunting once more for any piece of knowledge that he wants, catching and holding it, and letting it go again…
(198d) …our illustration from hunting pigeons and getting possession of them will enable us to explain that the hunting occurs in two ways – first before you possess your pigeon in order to have possession of it; secondly, after getting possession of it, in order to catch and hold in you hand what you have already possessed for some time. In the same way, if you have long possessed pieces of knowledge about things you have learned and know, it is still possible to get to know the same things again, by the process of recovering the knowledge of some particular thing and getting hold of it. It is knowledge you have possessed for some time, but you had not got it handy in your mind.

RAM Chips

The image behind the button for 'Modules' is a photo of the RAM chips of an original Macintosh - Model M000001W, produced in 1984 (the 512K version). We quite naturally talk of computers as having 'memory', even though the term 'memory' is a psychological term, and few, if any, would want to attribute other psychological states to a PC. Why? To what extent is the metaphorical use of 'memory' apt in this case? Does the use of this metaphor influence our own reflective thinking about our psychological states?

Marcel Proust

Proust most well-known pieces of literature, A Remembrance of Things Past, exemplifies the process of introspective memory. His book describes what it is like not only to have a memory but also what it is like to be remembering. In this way, Proust is a classic example of introspective reporting.