Research Information System
Springer-Verlag , Dordrecht, 2009
In this essay, we investigate the relevance of memory to personal identity and
moral responsibility. In so doing, we make a distinction between personal
identity characterized by the continuity of memory and narrative self-identity
characterized by bio-physical continuity and connectedness which allows us
to examine moral responsibility in the presence and absence of memory. We
argue that memory provides direct access to our past experiences which one
immediately appropriates, in contrast to imputing our unremembered acts to
ourselves from the third-person perspective. We also maintain that we would
be morally responsible for those acts that we remember and those that we
don’t, since these acts become either part of our personal identity or narrative
self-identity.