How We Remember Things

by Rene Descartes Icon

Table of contents

When the soul wants to remember something, it causes the pineal gland to tilt successively in various directions.

This pushes the spirits towards different places in the brain until they find the traces left [in the memory].

These traces are the pores of the brain where the spirits previously went through due to the presence of this object.

The easily-rememberable experiences are where the pores are easily reopened by the spirits.

When the spirits find these pores, they enter them more easily than the others.

This excites a particular movement in the gland, which represents the same object to the soul.

This makes the soul recognize that it is the one it wanted to remember.

When we want to imagine something never seen before, the gland pushes the spirits towards the brain’s pores.

When we want to keep our attention fixed on an object, the willpower keeps the gland tilted in the same direction.

When we want to walk or move his body in another way, the willpower makes the gland push the spirits towards the muscles for this purpose.

But That by Industry or Habit It Can Be Joined to Others

The pineal gland is not always moved by the will.

This changes according to how nature or habit has associated each pineal gland movement to each thought.

If one wants to look at a very distant object, this desire makes the pupil dilate.
If one wants to look at a very close object, this desire makes it contract.

But if we want to dilate our pupil, we will not be able to do it merely by wanting it.

This is because nature has not associated the willpower with the direct dilation or contraction of the pupil.

Instead, such action is associated with the willpower to look at distant or close objects.

When speaking, we think only of exoressing what we want to say.

The habit that we have acquired in learning to speak has made us associate 2 things: