I enjoyed Professor Firestein’s discussion of how cultural factors affect our understanding of time, especially the sense of progress that many people now believe is innate but is likely a condition of our current moment. This point arose from a conversation about the emotional memory and its connection to smell. From my own experience, his point about the fact that smells can cause memories, especially those connected to specific emotions, to arise rings true. I also think this works in terms of vague points in life, such as “childhood” or “summer vacations”. Professor Firestein’s comments about the connection between emotions and smells made me think about how large chunks of time in my life become associated with emotions. Many emotions definitely came and went during childhood summer vacations, but certain emotions dominate the memory and become associated with those periods of time.
top of page
bottom of page