Aristotle and Plotinus on Memory

Two treatises on memory which have come down to us from antiquity are Aristotle s On memory and recollectionand Plotinus On perception and memory (IV 6); the latter also wrote at length about memory in his Problems connected with the soul (IV 3-4, esp. 3.25-4.6). Both authors treat memoryas a modest faculty: they assume the existence of a persistent subject to whom memory belongs; and basic cognitive capacities are assumed on which memory depends. In particular, both theories use phantasia (representation) to explain memory. "