ABSTRACT
Recently, there has been some debate in philosophy about whether we can gain knowledge of what an experience is like through the testimony of a person who has had that experience. Some have argued that it should generally be possible to gain such knowledge by using our empathic and imaginative capacities. However, most scholars involved in the debate would also suggest that there may be limits as to what we can imagine. The chapter considers a case in which, according to the author's analysis, we indeed have reason to think that we will be unable to understand what an experience is like. This is the case of Holocaust testimony. The author also argues that this failure to understand can help to produce a different kind of understanding, one that is more broadly historical in nature.
