ABSTRACT
This chapter says more about the general notion of the past being in the present, and about what it means for human beings to live in time. This background will turn out to be essential for understanding the nature of retrospective responsibility. It is certainly tempting to think that only the present really exists. The past existed, to be sure, but now it is dead and buried. The historical account has plenty of room for experiential memories in people, as one kind of evidence of the past among others. There are situations and contexts when one has to move on from the past. The lingering past and mutual human intelligibility, that the blame game, between accuser and accused makes sense. In order to take part in the blame game, the defendant needs to have sufficient mental capacity to understand the accusation and the possibility that it might be incomplete in relation to his own memories.
