The Ethics of Memory (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: thick relations, moral witness, thin relations, Good Samaritan, New Testament, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Plato taught that the search for knowledge is tied up with memory, the effort to recall something we collectively knew. Freud took memory even further, positing that repressed memories are the key to shaping us as individuals and as a society. Margalit, a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and author of The Decent Society, takes up these issues in respect to an idea of communal memory. Acknowledging that historical religions "can make a bid on moral memory," he instead poses a question: "Is there an ethics of memory?" His answer is a qualified yes, but it's the exegesis that is most compelling. Discussing memory's relation to emotions, morality, ethics and forgiveness, Margalit reads the Bible, writers (such as Wordsworth, Edward Albee and E.M. Forster), myths and other philosophers (Kant and Max Weber) in order to make his finely nuanced argument.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Margalit (philosophy, Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem) maintains that people sometimes have ethical obligations to remember past persons and events, but he is anxious to guard his own thesis from over-expansion. He distinguishes his position from religious doctrines that are bound up with the past, holding that an ethics of memory has secular sense. Further, he does not support traditionalism, that is, the retention of past institutions as a value in itself. He also warns of "moralism," by which he means "the disposition to cast judgments of a moral kind on what is unsuitable to be so judged." To counter moralism, he distinguishes between ethics and morality. The former deals with our relations to those with whom we have special ties; the latter, our obligations to humanity as a whole. Margalit maintains that we have ethical obligations to remember particular people and, more controversially, that a community can have, and ought to have, collective memories. The stricter obligations of morality involve issues of memory only in unusual circumstances. We are, for instance, obligated to remember the evils of the Nazis, since they endeavored to undermine morality altogether. This illuminating study is highly recommended. David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (November 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067400941X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674009417
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,216,080 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A philosophical and cultural delight., June 18, 2003

By	Dr. Jeremy Rosen (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

For someone who loves Philosophy and Judaism this book was a real delight. Margalit draws on Jewish and European cultural sources to examine both the nature of ethics as opposed to morality and the meaning and obligations of memory.
Usually cross cultural afficionados are caught in a philosophical world that has no use for religious traditions or vice versa. Here is a unique opportunity to revel in both.
Regardless of ones political or religious background or inclinations this book will resonate and stimulate.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ethically Amazing, May 29, 2007

By	E. Silva (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Ethics of Memory (Paperback)

This has been a great book, full of insight and interest, the terms are well defined and easy to pick up at any time on almost any level. An interesting and captivating treatise on how important memory is, and how it relates to engaging in and caring for our world and each other. A great read that captivates and provokes thought on deeper levels.

Amazingly related to the authors heart is humanity and humanitarianism in everyday life, his humanitarianism though, does not detract from his capability but adds to it, as he rationalizes and attempts to make sense of one of the most personally overlooked aspects of life.