UCI Department of Philosophy
Brown Bag Lunch Series
Hosted by Gustavo Velazquez-Quintana
11/12/2025
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
HIB 55
The Social Nature and Function of Episodic Memory
The extended memory thesis holds that memory is not confined to the brain but can incorporate elements of the physical environment. Philosophical debates around this view have primarily focused on memory’s extension to epistemic artefacts, framing it as a cognitive strategy whereby individuals recruit external tools to complete personal tasks. This paper argues that if memory can extend to artefacts in the service of individual cognition, it can also extend to other people in the context of shared, collective tasks. Building on this socially distributed view of memory, the paper further maintains that the nature of memory is inseparable from its function. When people remember together, they most often do so through narrative. In narrating the past, we do not simply describe who we are—we perform who we are, crafting versions of ourselves that aim to appear credible, sympathetic, or admirable to others. In this way, memory becomes a means of shaping identity through socially oriented storytelling, fostering recognition, affirmation, and trust, and thereby reinforcing social bonds.
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