If I couldn’t remember it, then in what meaningful way have I experienced it?
I’ve done things in the past I don’t remember doing, but I don’t think it’s a good use of the word “experience” to say that I didn’t experience those things. What if my parents tell me about something I did as a kid, which even after being told I don’t recall, but I believe them? (This has happened, of course; introductions to their friends, for example, or places we’ve been.) On which side of the alleged experience/nonexperience line does that fall? For that matter, why are we assuming that something which is not remembered has no consequences? Something could have happened to me when I was young which influenced my tastes or choices but which I still later didn’t remember.
It’s a troublesome word. I don’t feel I have experience of an event I don’t remember, but I presumably have experienced it if I was a participant. I suppose I think a defining characteristic of experience is being able to draw upon it, which I can’t do if I don’t remember it.
Exactly. I might say they’re “events which have occurred” and “events one can recall,” which itself is distinct from “events is aware of,” given other observers who recall them. I suggest we taboo “experience” altogether.
I’ve done things in the past I don’t remember doing, but I don’t think it’s a good use of the word “experience” to say that I didn’t experience those things. What if my parents tell me about something I did as a kid, which even after being told I don’t recall, but I believe them? (This has happened, of course; introductions to their friends, for example, or places we’ve been.) On which side of the alleged experience/nonexperience line does that fall? For that matter, why are we assuming that something which is not remembered has no consequences? Something could have happened to me when I was young which influenced my tastes or choices but which I still later didn’t remember.
It’s a troublesome word. I don’t feel I have experience of an event I don’t remember, but I presumably have experienced it if I was a participant. I suppose I think a defining characteristic of experience is being able to draw upon it, which I can’t do if I don’t remember it.
Hmm. If it can be used in both ways, perhaps we can be more productive/clear if we use another one.
I don’t think I have another word for it in either context. “Participatory experience” and “retrospective experience”, maybe?
I think I might be having some conceptual trouble with this one, since an event I have no memory of is an experience I haven’t experienced.
Exactly. I might say they’re “events which have occurred” and “events one can recall,” which itself is distinct from “events is aware of,” given other observers who recall them. I suggest we taboo “experience” altogether.