ABSTRACT
Memory is inseparable from moral judgement. In classical philosophy, remembrance is the drawing together of the past in the present for the purposes of evaluation and making choices. The Roman philosopher Cicero saw memory as integral to prudence – knowledge of good and bad and the differences that lie in between. She or he who speaks publicly of the past enters into a set of obligations about how to act in relation to the events and times they recount (see Yates, 1992; Margalit, 2002). For the past is rarely neutral. It comes with implications about present circumstances and future courses of action. These may appear in the form of continuities or breaks, succession or branching. A consideration of the past rarely indicates directly some futureto-come. It is better thought of as an interpretative puzzle with numerous solutions, all of which have differing consequences for the present.
