Is it possible to remember not doing somerhing?
I remember what I have done for the last 5 minutes
I did not go to the bathroom in the last 5 minutes
Therefore I remember not going to the bathroom in the last 5 minutes.
Like that?
It’s one thing to say “I don’t recall going to the bathroom in the past five minutes”, but can you recall not doing it?
Not if you put it like that. But that’s not a logic question. It’s a question about what it means to remember things.
I very clearly remember not eating breakfast this morning.
All the time. I think I should urinate, but don’t. I can remember not going.
Also related, though not quite what you’re asking: it’s entirely possible to remember something that didn’t happen. cite.
Sure, I can be conscious of not doing something now, and then remembering that ten seconds later.
And it’s not a logic question, it’s an epistemological question.
I disagree. That is not actually remembering. It is seeming to remember, or thinking that one remembers.
No, it’s a semantics question, I realized it after posting it.
It is possible to remember that you have not done something at some specified time, or during some specified period of time (including ever). Whether it is possible to remember not doing something regardless of any temporal specification seems to me to be more questionable.
I remember my not giving a factual answer to this OP.
Well if it’s semantic, then it’s easy to answer.
I remember not failing to vote at the last election. I remember not forgetting to turn up to my graduation ceremony. I remember not getting lost on the way to my sister’s wedding.
I clearly remember not doing lot of things.
Well - If you’ve just completed some multi-step task you’re familiar with, it’s certainly possible to “replay the tape” in your head and realize “Oh gosh, I recognize now that I forgot to do step 3.”
It’s a pretty standard technique for error avoidance.
So in that sense you’re pretty clearly remembering not doing something. Or said another way, you’re remembering what you did do and comparing it to what you should have done.
If you’re willing to apply some interpretation to the memories, I can distinctly recall not having flown down to Rio in a zeppelin in the last six months. I wasn’t planning to, and I didn’t think of my activities as “doing something other than hopping in a zeppelin and going to get some Brazilian action” at the time, but looking back on it now I can certainly conclude that there have been no zeppelins or half-dressed women speaking Portuguese in my immediate history.
My point is, even though my memories haven’t changed, they’re cast in a somewhat different light due to retroactive interpretations applied to them. This is actually a rather important part of the human experience, given how commonly people are retroactively embarrassed by prior behaviors or inaction.