BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:talks.ox.ac.uk BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:“‘Do this in Remembrance of Me’: Memory\, Cognitive Neurosci ence\, and the Embodied Remembrance of God in Liturgical Action.” - Buki Fatona (University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240307T170000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240307T180000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/4eaf83ee-efbe-4c2b-994c-524508d1b564/ DESCRIPTION:“‘Do this in Remembrance of Me’: \nMemory\, Cognitive Ne uroscience\, and the Embodied Remembrance of God in Liturgical Action.”\ n\nBuki Fatona\, University of Oxford\nMain Lecture Room\, Faculty of Theo logy and Religion\, Gibson Building\n\nA seminar presented by the Ian Rams ey Centre for Science and Religion \nand the Humane Philosophy Project\n\n This talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. \n\ n_______________________________________________\n\nIn this seminar\, I ex plore implications of a constructivist model of memory for liturgical theo logy. Recent findings in cognitive neuroscience challenge the classical mo del of memory in philosophy as a storage device wherein memories are impri nted from experience and reproduced when remembering. It appears\, however \, that remembering past events consists in active (re)constructions in th e present in a similar manner and via the same mechanisms as imagining the future. This means\, counterintuitively perhaps\, that one can successful ly simulate memory of an event without a prior experience of that event. F urther\, as I argue and drawing on an enactivist theory of cognition\, act ive (re)constructions of the past in memory are generated via an organism ’s embodied interactions with\, and navigations of\, its environment. A constructivist-enactivist model of memory has hitherto unexplored implicat ions for liturgical theology. In exploring these implications\, I go on to argue that anamnesis—that is\, the liturgical action of celebrating the Eucharist in remembrance of Christ—is better explained by a constructiv ist-enactivist model of memory than by the classical model.\n\nBUKI FATONA is nearing completion of a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Oxfo rd in Theology (Science and Religion). Her research brings together her de grees in Microbiology (BSc)\; Theology (BA)\; and Epistemology\, Ethics\, Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science (MSc). In her work\, she examines memory systems in antiquity (Aristotle) and the medieval period (Augustin e and Thomas Aquinas) via the lens of contemporary cognitive neuroscience. It is a work which draws on her knowledge of\, and passion for\, classics \; ancient and medieval science and philosophy of mind\; contemporary phil osophy of memory and cognitive neuroscience. https://www.theology.ox.ac.uk /people/buki-fatona.\n\n_______________________________________________\n\ nThese events are organised by the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Relig ion in collaboration with the Humane Philosophy Project\, with sponsorship from the John Templeton Foundation and the University of Warsaw.\n\n\nSpe akers:\nBuki Fatona (University of Oxford) LOCATION:Gibson Building (Main Lecture Room\, Faculty of Theology and Reli gion\, Gibson Building)\, Woodstock Road OX2 6HE TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/4eaf83ee-efbe-4c2b-994c-524508d1b564/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:“‘Do this in Remembrance of Me’: Memory\, Cognitive Neuroscience\, and the Embodied Remembrance of God in Liturgical Action. ” - Buki Fatona (University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:St Augustine on Memory and Prediction - Buki Fatona (University of Oxford)\, Professor Joshua Hordern (Associate Professor of Christian Ethi cs\, OHVP\, University of Oxford) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220203T160000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220203T173000Z UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/d1daaf11-69b2-4654-8a83-f0a8a8e6372e/ DESCRIPTION:This paper traces two key views in contemporary philosophy of memory back to St. Augustine (354-430). \nAugustine's well-developed and c oncisely delineated account of memory begins in his Confessiones. His \nch aracterisation of memory\, and the nature of the human mind created in the image of the triune God\, carries on in\nhis De Trinitate.\n\nThe first k ey view I trace back to Augustine is that remembering the past—i.e.\, me mory—and imagining the future—\ni.e.\, prediction—are continuous pro cesses. That is\, the same cognitive processes\, which includes but is not limited to \nthe imagination\, undergird both processes. This view is kno wn as ‘continuism’. The form of continuism\, which I \ndefend in this paper\, holds that memory and prediction are continuous cognitive processe s because they are both \nforms of Mental Time Travel (MTT). MTT being the cognitive ability of "re-living the past and/or pre-living the \nfuture" (Suddendorf and Corballis\, 2007\, p.299). Put another way\, memory\, or r emembering the past\, may be \nconstrued as re-living the past. Whereas pr ediction\, or thinking about the future\, may be construed as pre-living t he \nfuture. Thus\, it is via memory and prediction that we mentally trave l back as well as forward in time.\n\nThe second key view that I trace bac k to Augustine is related to the first and it goes: Memory and prediction are \nconstructive in nature. That is\, re-living the past (memory) and pr e-living the future (prediction) involve a dynamic \n(re)construction of a cquired information. This view is known as ‘constructivism’ (for such a view see Glenberg\, 1997\; \nAtance and O'Neill 2001 & 2005\; De Brigard \, 2014\; Suddendorf\, T. and Corballis\, M. C.\, 1997). Constructivism st ands \nin opposition to the traditional view of memory as reproduction of stored information. This traditional 'archival' \nview of memory can be tr aced back to Plato\, to whom memory is analogous to a "wax tablet" on whic h experiences \nare imprinted to be later retrieved as memories (Theaetetu s191c\,d).\n\nAn archival view of memory is\, according to Mary Carruthers \, the "governing model" of memory in all Western \ncultures (2008\, p.18) . This means that Augustine's constructivism is a minority view. However\, recent empirical \nfindings in cognitive neuroscience and experimental ps ychology seem to indicate that memory is constructive\, rather \nthan arch ival\, in nature. I go on to explain how\, on Augustine's account\, God is known and encountered in memory. \nIndeed\, the dynamic infiniteness of a reconstructive kind of memory supports Augustine's epistemic claims \ncon cerning the divine ontology: God's boundless being is known and encountere d within a reconstructive memory's \ninfinite\, spatiotemporal field.\nSpe akers:\nBuki Fatona (University of Oxford)\, Professor Joshua Hordern (Ass ociate Professor of Christian Ethics\, OHVP\, University of Oxford) LOCATION:Venue to be announced TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/d1daaf11-69b2-4654-8a83-f0a8a8e6372e/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:St Augustine on Memory and Prediction - Buki Fatona (Univ ersity of Oxford)\, Professor Joshua Hordern (Associate Professor of Chris tian Ethics\, OHVP\, University of Oxford) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR