Juan F. Álvarez
Ruhr-Universität Bochum - jalvarces[at]gmail[dot]com
Juan F. Álvarez
Ruhr-Universität Bochum - jalvarces[at]gmail[dot]com
I am a postdoctoral researcher at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in the DFG-funded research unit FOR 2812 "Constructing Scenarios of the Past", where I work on the role of non-perceptual factors in remembering. I have also been a member of the Centre for Philosophy of Memory since 2021.
My research spans subfields of philosophies of mind and cognitive science, including the philosophies of memory, imagination, and extended cognition. I defend a reliabilist-discontinuist theory of memory (Philosophical Psychology, 2026) and reject exclusionism about remembering and relearning (Philosophical Studies, 2025). I have co-authored work with colleagues at the Centre for Philosophy of Memory on the continuist-discontinuist debate (Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Memory, forthcoming), the causalist-simulationist debate (Philosophy and the Mind Sciences, 2025), and the experimental philosophy of memory (Acta Scientiarum, 2021).
As a member of the research unit FOR 2812, I am currently investigating how memory extends into the environment, how we imagine other people's pasts, and the nature of early childhood memory.
When I can, I think about the normativity of forgetting and the epistemology of imagination.
I completed my PhD as a doctorant contractuel at the Université Grenoble Alpes and Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Before that, I obtained an MA in philosophy of mind at the Université Grenoble Alpes, and earlier a BA in philosophy at the Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia).
Urraeño y montañero.
My paper, "Memory and imagination: Toward discontinuist simulationism", has been published online in Philosophical Psychology.
I have successfully defended my dissertation, which was awarded summa cum laude. Many thanks to my committee!
Our chapter "Memory and imagination", co-authored with Jakub Rudnicki and Kourken Michaelian, has been accepted for publication in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Memory, edited by André Sant'Anna and Carl F. Craver.