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Volume 7, Issue 1
  • ISSN 2210-4119
  • E-ISSN: 2210-4127
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Abstract

In this paper, I engage with the question of historical interpretation as a form of dialogue that can face an individual conscience with disturbing choices and decisions made at an earlier time, and the expectations we might have about a proper response. My paper draws on Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical ideas, as well as on a controversial part of his biography – his alleged involvement in the Petain circle in France in the early 1940s – to propose that instead of thinking about historical knowledge as reconstruction of another time, revelation of beliefs, or even exposure of intentions, we should consider it as a form of dialogical remembering that marks two joint features of subjectivity: fallibility and attestation. My paper does articulate a defense of Ricoeur’s philosophical conception of forgiveness, but offers neither an apology for nor an accusation on moral and political grounds.

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/content/journals/10.1075/ld.7.1.08rit
2017-06-17
2025-07-10

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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): dialogue remembering; historical interpretation; narrative attestation; narrative fallibility; Paul Ricoeur

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