ABSTRACT
The study of collective memory and cultural memory is rightly associated with historiography and cultural studies. However, recent developments in social ontology and social epistemology raise the need for the inclusion of several contemporary philosophical perspectives into the process of understanding memory, power and society. Attempts by social philosophers such as Raimo Tuomela, who provide interesting definitions of collective entities and the characteristics of non-formal and formal groups, are helping us categorize various collective memory actors and are shedding a new light in understanding the relationship between the individual and the collective. Furthermore, recent social epistemology efforts in researching social facts, social truth and beliefs, created on the basis of Gilbert and Goldman’s work, provide a necessary groundwork for understanding the content of remembrance and its distribution through society. The debates in contemporary ethics, such as the one between Rawls and Gaus on public reason and justice, are crucial for answering questions regarding the moral aspects of the social processes observed and researched throughout the Framing the Nation and Collective Identity in Croatia: Political Rituals and the Cultural Memory of Twentieth Century Traumas project. Finally, by understanding memory better, we can provide a framework for a critical discussion on various memory policies implemented on the national level in Croatia but at the international level as well. By implementing all of these different perspectives, collective memory and cultural memory can embody the role of a “bridge” between philosophy, cultural studies, historiography and political science and become a good example of interdisciplinary cooperation with the common goal of improving our understanding and governing of our society.
