Читать книгу Philosophy For Dummies - Tom Morris - Страница 52

What are the distinctive sources for your beliefs about the past? Most of the beliefs you have about the past come to you through the testimony of other people. You weren’t present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. You didn’t witness firsthand the events of the American Civil War. You have been told about these things by sources you take to be reliable.

The testimony of others is generally the main source of your beliefs about the past. But sometimes you were there. Things you have experienced directly, you later have access to through the means of memory. The second distinctive source of your beliefs about the past is then memory. Of course, memory also mediates past first-hand experience into the present.