Talk by Marya Schechtman “The Way We Were: Memory and Identity”

It is often said that our memories make us who we are, but the exact way in which they do so is usually left unspecified. In this talk, professor Marya Schechtman explores some of the different ways in which we represent our pasts — and ourselves in the past — and their variable roles in constituting identity. She argues that in addition to the simple information about our pasts that memory provides, there are particular forms of memory that allow us to recognize ourselves as continuing beings in a way that is essential to key kinds of experiences and relationships that make us who and what we are.