“Paradise of childhood”: Herder’s theory of memory between Plato and Leibniz

This article examines J. G. Herder’s original doctrine of memory, as expressed in Über die Seelenwandrung (1782), where the author questioned the link between the theory of transmigration of souls and mnemonic processes. The first part of the paper focuses on the premises underlying Herder’s reflection on memory by means of an analysis of his early writings (such as the manuscript, written around 1767, known as Plato sagte) concerning Plato’s theory of recollection as interpreted by modern philosophers including Leibniz and Mendelssohn. These latter thinkers reappraise Plato’s theory of recollection, and ‘correct’ certain errors, such as the theory of a previous life in the hyperuranion as a premise of true knowledge. Herder reconsiders both Plato’s and Leibniz’s doctrines of recollection, attempting to eliminate their metaphysical implications and explain memory from a more anthropological and psychological perspective.