From Mind to Memory: Bridging Charles Peirce and Endel Tulving Through Phenomenology of Time

Peircean semiotics can improve our understanding of meaning-making in Episodic Memory (EM), also known as ‘autobiographical memory’. It has the potential to complement current hypotheses of EM’s phenomenology by shedding light on the cognitive role of interpretation on behalf of an interpreter, which is central to understanding episodic Mental Time Travel (MTT) beyond the classic computational terms of information processing. I make this case by examining subjective (lived) time in the work of Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914), father of Pragmaticism, and in the work of Endel Tulving (1927–2023), father of EM theory. As a result, I observe that both scientists emphasize that cognitive processes, different from unidirectional mechanical causation, are anticipatory and pragmatic. The first section sets the stage for the reader to understand the historical relevance of connecting Tulving with Peirce. With this aim, I briefly contextualize the psychological research of both scientists and highlight the overlap between their hypotheses. The second section applies Peirce’s concept of semiosis to Tulving’s views on MTT, chronesthesia, and autonoesis. The third section introduces Tulving’s famous triadic class-inclusion hierarchy, according to which memory systems are dynamically controlled by three different types of consciousness. If Peirce had lived to see this evidence-based hierarchy, I conclude, he could have framed it as the semiotic thresholds of self-control in the human mind.