01 · ResearchPublicationsSelected ideas and complete record ↘02 · ClassroomTeachingCourses, principles, and evidence ↙

Profile

Nikola Andonovski

Philosopher of mind & cognitive science

I am a Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at George Washington University. I am also affiliated with the Centre for Philosophy of Memory at Université Grenoble Alpes.

My research focuses on episodic memory: the capacity that lets us mentally revisit events from our past. I examine its causal and representational structure, as well as its relation to imagination, perception, and reasoning.

My broader interests include the nature of the mind, artificial intelligence, and the impact rapidly-developing technologies have on social, cultural, and educational practices.

I received my PhD from Johns Hopkins University and was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Philosophy of Memory.

03 · CollaborationEditorial workVolumes and special issues ↗04 · ConveningEvent organizationConferences, workshops, and seminars ↖

Follow a thread

A map of the questions, projects, and classrooms that make up my work.

Selected work

Three ways into an idea.

Six papers, translated without flattening them. Choose how close you want to look, then continue into the complete publication record below.

Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Memory · forthcoming

Memory and causation

Does a memory have to be caused by the past it depicts?

Two mental images can feel equally vivid. One is a memory; the other is an unusually accurate invention. Could their different histories explain why only one counts as remembering?

causationepisodic memorynaturalism

Philosophical Studies · 2026 · with Rebecca Copenhaver & James Openshaw

A dilemma for simulationism

If remembering is imagination, is it still a distinctive capacity?

Memory and imagination both construct scenes in the mind. If they use the same process, why call one scene a memory? If they use different processes, where does the difference lie?

simulationismimaginationmemory systems

Synthese · 2024

Engrams as mental files

What kind of thing is a memory trace?

Experiences leave changes in the brain, but those changes must somehow remain about particular events. The paper asks how a physical trace can keep track of what happened.

engramsmental filesrepresentation

European Journal for Philosophy of Science · 2023

Autonoesis and the Galilean science of memory

Why did the feeling of mentally reliving the past become central to memory science?

Feeling that you are reliving your past can seem like the essence of episodic memory. The paper asks whether that status reflects memory itself—or the history of how scientists built the theory.

autonoesisidealizationmemory systems

Review of Philosophy and Psychology · 2021

Memory as triage

Why do we remember so little of what we experience?

Forgetting is not merely failure. A useful memory system must decide what to preserve, what to retrieve, and what to let go.

selectionforgettingmemory function

Review of Philosophy and Psychology · 2020

Singularism about episodic memory

Must every episodic memory be about one unique, personally experienced event?

We often remember not a single Tuesday but a repeated routine or a blended stretch of life. Those memories complicate the idea that episodic memory always targets one particular episode.

singularismgeneral eventsmemory traces

Complete record

Publications

19 articles, chapters, and reference works, listed from the latest CV.

01Forthcoming
Memory and causation
Nikola Andonovski
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Memory, Oxford University Press
02Forthcoming
Introduction
Nikola Andonovski, Christopher J. McCarroll, Kourken Michaelian & André Sant’Anna
Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, Palgrave Macmillan
032026
A dilemma for simulationism
Nikola Andonovski, Rebecca Copenhaver & James Openshaw
Philosophical Studies
042026
Editorial: Causation in memory
Nikola Andonovski, Sarah Robins & Kourken Michaelian
Philosophical Psychology 39(5), 1951–1963
052025
Memory
Nikola Andonovski & Kourken Michaelian
Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, MIT Press
062025
Episodic memory as a mindshaped capacity
Christopher J. McCarroll & Nikola Andonovski
The Routledge Handbook of Mindshaping, 162–175
072024
Engrams as mental files
Nikola Andonovski
Synthese 204, 154
082024
Naturalism and simulationism in the philosophy of memory
Nikola Andonovski & Kourken Michaelian
Naturalism and Its Challenges, Routledge, 252–273
092024
Eliminating episodic memory?
Nikola Andonovski, John Sutton & Christopher J. McCarroll
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 379, 20230413
102024
Autonoesis and episodicity: Perspectives from philosophy of memory
André Sant’Anna, Kourken Michaelian & Nikola Andonovski
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science 15(1), e1665
112023
Accounting for the strangeness, infrequency, and suddenness of déjà vu
Nikola Andonovski & Kourken Michaelian
Behavioural and Brain Sciences 46, e358
122023
Autonoesis and the Galilean science of memory: Explanation, idealization, and the role of crucial data
Nikola Andonovski
European Journal for Philosophy of Science 13(3), 42
132022
Episodic representation: A mental models account
Nikola Andonovski
Frontiers in Psychology 13, 899371
142021
Causation in memory: Necessity, reliability and probability
Nikola Andonovski
Acta Scientiarum 43(3), e61493
152021
Causation and mnemonic roles: On Fernández’s functionalism
Nikola Andonovski
Estudios de Filosofía 64, 139–153
162021
Memory as triage: Facing up to the hard question of memory
Nikola Andonovski
Review of Philosophy and Psychology 12, 227–256
172020
Singularism about episodic memory
Nikola Andonovski
Review of Philosophy and Psychology 11, 335–365
182019
Is the simulation theory of memory about simulation?
Nikola Andonovski
Voluntas: Revista de Filosofia 10(3), 37–52
192018
Is episodic memory a natural kind?
Nikola Andonovski
Essays in Philosophy 19(2)

Teaching

The educational purpose of philosophy is to help students inhabit ideas rather than merely learn about them.

My teaching brings philosophy into contact with cognitive science, artificial intelligence, writing, and public life. Courses are structured around relevance, active engagement, and intellectual tolerance.

Currently teaching

Introduction to Philosophy

Free will, mind, artificial intelligence, social identity, morality, and justice—approached through contemporary problems and the assumptions beneath them.

The George Washington University · Fall 2026

Past coursesPrimary instructor

Expository Writing: What Is Mental Illness?Johns Hopkins · 2018–2020
Minds and MachinesJohns Hopkins · 2015–2018
Philosophy and MemoryJohns Hopkins · 2017
Philosophy and NonviolenceGeorge Washington · 2017
Mental Time TravelJohns Hopkins · 2017
Philosophy of Human RightsGeorge Washington · 2016
NeurophilosophyJohns Hopkins · 2016

Also taught as teaching assistant: Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Formal Methods of Philosophy, What Is Science?, Philosophy of Mind, and Introduction to Bioethics.

Portfolio in brief

Clear structure. Active inquiry. Extensive feedback.

I use real-world cases, argument maps, peer workshops, debates, and one-to-one revision conferences to help students connect abstract ideas to questions they already care about.

01Relevance02Engagement03Intellectual tolerance

4.90/5Highest teaching-effectiveness rating

4.92/5Highest feedback-usefulness rating

Johns Hopkins student evaluations, 2015–2020

Editorial projects