[SydPhil] Invitation: USyd Postgrad Work in Progress Talk: James Ley @ Tue 19 Mar 2013 15:00 - 16:30 (sydphil at arts.usyd.edu.au)

[Simon Varey]

You have been invited to the following event.

Title: USyd Postgrad Work in Progress Talk: James Ley
Which ethics of memory?

The ethics of memory concerns normative claims that we should remember, or  
should not forget, certain events or features of the past. But how (if we  
admit them) should we respond to normative claims about memory? Will it be  
enough for us to keep records of the past and commemorate it in monuments  
and street signs? Will the making of votive acts or acts of restitution for  
past actions be enough? Or will we need to teach ourselves and others about  
the past, repeatedly eliciting and practising those details we should  
remember? Is it by the making of artefacts, of ceremony, of restitution, or  
only by the making of reliably accessible mental states that we begin to do  
the right thing in relation to memory? In this paper I address an argument  
in Avishai Margalit’s The Ethics of Memory (2002). Margalit proposes that  
normative claims about collective memory are made possible and satisfied by  
what he calls ‘shared memory’. ‘Shared memory’, as Margalit identifies it,  
‘in a modern society travels from person to person through institutions,  
such as archives, and through communal mnemonic devices, such as monuments  
and the names of streets’ (p. 54). I argue that Margalit’s conclusion that  
archives and other artefacts satisfy normative claims about collective  
memory rests on a common fallacy. I do not deny that ethical behaviour is  
possible in relation to memory. I argue instead that ethical behaviour in  
relation to memory concerns the malleability of the human nervous system.  
By teaching ourselves and others about the past we answer claims that we  
should remember with enduring mental states concerning the past.  And by  
distributing these mental states in the minds of the living we make  
possible the kind of societal deliberation that could help us begin to do  
justice to the historical past.
When: Tue 19 Mar 2013 15:00 – 16:30 Eastern Time - Melbourne, Sydney
Where: Philosophy Common Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney
Calendar: sydphil at arts.usyd.edu.au
Who:
     * simonvarey at gmail.com- creator
     * Sydphil List

Event details:  
https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=VIEW&eid=Zmx1MnAzZWozcGsxb2FuYjYzamg5bTU3M2sgc3lkcGhpbEBhcnRzLnVzeWQuZWR1LmF1&tok=NTIjMmJlcm9za3ZqcjJnMjRyam50cWxxZWdzNm9AZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbWE0YmVhNzc2Y2U1MTAwMmM4OWE0YmRjMTU2MzE0MWNhYWVlYjE0NTQ&ctz=Australia/Sydney&hl=en_GB

Invitation from Google Calendar: https://www.google.com/calendar/

You are receiving this email at the account sydphil at arts.usyd.edu.au  
because you are subscribed for invitations on calendar  
sydphil at arts.usyd.edu.au.

To stop receiving these notifications, please log in to  
https://www.google.com/calendar/ and change your notification settings for  
this calendar.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.sydney.edu.au/pipermail/sydphil/attachments/20130314/7fc7591a/attachment-0002.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/calendar
Size: 2979 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.sydney.edu.au/pipermail/sydphil/attachments/20130314/7fc7591a/attachment.ics>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: invite.ics
Type: application/ics
Size: 3031 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.sydney.edu.au/pipermail/sydphil/attachments/20130314/7fc7591a/attachment-0004.bin>