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THE TEMPORAL DIMENSION OF DISCERNMENT: HISTORY AND MEMORY
(V.REV.) JOHN H. ERICKSON
History and memory: Over the past half century anthropologists and psychologists,
social theorists and philosophers have reflected on the relationship of these paired
terms. A plethora of books, articles, and scholarly journals include one or both in
their titles. When reflecting on these terms, scholars often draw attention to an
additional element: forgetting.
Here Paul Ricoeur’s magnum opus, Memory, History,
Forgetting, immediately springs to mind, but many more works on the subject could
be mentioned.
1 We have a moral duty to remember, we frequently are told,
especially victims of atrocities like the Holocaust. But we also may have a duty to
forget – and not simply for utilitarian reasons, not simply to provide some breathing
space in the wake of one or another social trauma.
2 We may remember too much
and for too long. As an Irish saying puts it, “Long after the quarrel has stopped
making any sense, the memory of the grudge endures.”3
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