But when
one has scientific knowledge, or perception, apart from the
actualizations of the faculty concerned, he thus 'remembers' (that the
angles of a triangle are together equal to two right angles); as to
the former, that he learned it, or thought it out for himself, as to
the latter, that he heard, or saw, it, or had some such sensible
experience of it. For whenever one exercises the faculty of
remembering, he must say within himself, 'I formerly heard (or
otherwise perceived) this,' or 'I formerly had this thought'.
Memory is, therefore, neither Perception nor Conception, but a state
or affection of one of these, conditioned by lapse of time. As already
observed, there is no such thing as memory of the present while
present, for the present is object only of perception, and the future,
of expectation, but the object of memory is the past. All memory,
therefore, implies a time elapsed; consequently only those animals
which perceive time remember, and the organ whereby they perceive time
is also that whereby they remember.
The subject of 'presentation' has been already considered in our
work On the Soul. Without a presentation intellectual activity is
impossible. For there is in such activity an incidental affection
identical with one also incidental in geometrical demonstrations.
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