Hermeneutical problems and methodological solutions in studying the notion of memory in the history of philosophy

With the project conducted at CESR in Tours I aimed to shed light on thinking about memory and oblivion in the sixteenth century in order to identify a new research field in the history of Renaissance philosophy which I call “philosophy of memory”. Through textual analysis I have investigated how Philipp Melanchthon, Giordano Bruno, and Michel de Montaigne, three of the most influential thinkers of the sixteenth century, conceived of, reflected on, and wrote about memory at the intersection of some of the most important disciplines of this age, i.e. philosophy, theology, and medicine in Philipp Melanchthon, philosophy, rhetoric, and mnemonics in Giordano Bruno, and finally philosophy, literature, and history in Michele de Montaigne. The hermeneutical approaches I used in investigating the works of the three thinkers were drawn from analytical “philosophy of memory” and phenomenological “metaphorology”. At the interdisciplinary seminar “LE STUDIUM Thursday” I will present the methodologies adopted and will discuss some of their interdisciplinary implications.

Speaker

Sara Taglialatela

LE STUDIUM / FIAS Research Fellow

PREVIOUSLY: University of Copenhagen - DK 
IN RESIDENCE AT: Centre for Advanced Studies in the Renaissance (CESR)  / CNRS, University of Tours - FR