Memory forms the very fabric of our selves. Yet we forget vastly more than we remember, and we embellish until we no longer trust our own minds. Should we accept that true memory is a fantasy? Does this risk chaos in our courts or liberate us to think ourselves and our culture anew?

Philosopher and classicist Angie Hobbs is Chair for the Public Understanding of Philosophy at Sheffield, and a frequent contributor to the BBC’s In Our Time, Night Waves and The Forum. She is the author of Plato and the Hero and is currently working on a new edition of Plato’s Symposium.

Here she speaks to the IAI about memory, identity, and why life has no meaning without narrative structures.
 

In the debate on IAI TV, you said that memory is essential for our sense of identity, regardless of whether memories are accurate.

Yes. For example, I could have a false memory from my childhood, based on something that didn’t actually happen, but something that somebody told me had happened. If I’ve grown up with that false memory for 50 years, it’s going to play a huge part in my sense of who I am and where I come from, what matters to me and what my values are – despite the fact that it’s not based on external reality.