Duty to Remember, Interest and Morality

Abstract

In this text I want to show that the relationship between memory and moral duty implies the necessary mediation of interest. Also, I want to analyse the consequences followed from the previous idea, for a more including and pragmatic conception of the relationships between ethics and moral. Using examples I begin by pointing out that there are in fact moral exigencies related to the duty of remembering. Alter that I begin to consider the nature of such moral exigencies and their linking with what we understand as interest. This in order to, finally, establish a fluid and non exclusive characterization of the interactions between ethics and morality. The starting point for these reflections can be found in the lessons about La ética del recuerdo (2002) by Avishai Margalit. Margalit states the following questions: Is there an ethics of memory?, under what kind of circumstances can we assert that we are obliged to remember people and events from the past? Of what kind of obligation are we talking about here? Who are to be considered as subjects of obligation: the individuals or the social collectives?