Does the past exist if we don't remember it?

Question

Does the past exist if we don't remember it?

Answer 1

the past doesn't exist if we do remember it...it's the past...it is gone...that doesn't mean that it never existed.

Answer 2

If we see people who have forms of amnesia and do not remember it, then from our viewpoint we would say that the past still exists even if they don't remember it (because we remember it). Though this is almost absolutely certain, it is knowledge by induction and therefore we really have no way of being 100% sure. There is also the problem that there is no way of proving/disproving that question.

If we believe that reality exists independently of belief (or memory in this case), then we would say that the past would exist even if we didn't remember it... even if nobody remembered it!!

An objectivist view would hold this to be the case and this is what I believe. If somebody has too much to drink and cannot remember the previous night, it has certainly happened! (And it may continue to affect them for some time!)

Answer 3

no it doesn't it resides in our memories only

Answer 4

yes

if you know you don't remember it, on some level you do, so it happened.

otherwise you'd not know that you weren't remembering.

Answer 5

I don't remember when I was in my mother's womb

but now when I look at myself, I say "oh yeah! Past did exist"

Answer 6

Does the world around you exist in the first place?

You may exist because you doubt therefore you think therefore you are but how do you know you are not a brain in a bucket

You should read 1984 and Animal Farm

Answer 7

Personally I believe that perception is reality.  Meaning.... how I perceive things is what is real to me.  If I can't perceive something in the past then it isn't real to me.  I'm not saying that a particular event may have or have not occured, but if I can't remember it, then it has no bearing on me.

Answer 8

of course i dont remember all of what happend in the civil war but it still happend it might not mean as much today but it still happened

Answer 9

Time is a dimension.

It exist as such and has been verified empirically.

The term past is a human perception that results from our continued existence in a temporal dimension.

Your question is somewhat like asking;

"If my body is annihilated does the space it once occupied still exist?".

The answer is of course it does.

Answer 10

you might want to clarify your terms and general applications