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Essays by the late feminist philosopher Sue Campbell explore the entanglement of epistemic and ethical values in our attempts to be faithful to our pasts. Her relational conception of memory is used to confront the challenges of sharing memory and reconstituting selves even in contexts fractured by moral and political differences.
About the author
Canadian philosopher Sue Campbell (1956-2011) did important and influential work in moral and political psychology and in feminist theory. Her interest was in the diverse ways we express emotion and memory and in the political contexts that affect our possibilities for self-expression. Her second book Relational Remembering: Rethinking the Memory Wars (2003) won the North American Society for Social Philosophy 2003 Book Prize, and is essential reading for anyone theorizing about memory and its reliability. In 2014, Hypatia, the foremost journal of feminist philosophy, will publish a cluster of new essays on Campbell's work.
Christine M. Koggel is Professor of Philosophy at Carleton University and the former Harvey Wexler Professor of Philosophy and Department Chair at Bryn Mawr College. Her numerous books and essays are in moral theory, practical ethics, social and political theory, and feminism.
Rockney Jacobsen is Associate Professor and former Chair of Philosophy at Wilfrid Laurier University. He has published essays in the philosophy of language and mind, Wittgenstein, the philosophy of sexuality, and in theoretical and applied ethics.
Summary
This volume brings together essays -- three of them previously unpublished -- on the epistemology, ethics, and politics of memory by the late feminist philosopher Sue Campbell. The essays in Part I diagnose contemporary skepticism about personal memory, and develop an account of good remembering that is better suited to contemporary (reconstructive) theories of memory. Campbell argues that being faithful to the past requires both accuracy and integrity, and is both an epistemic and an ethical achievement. The essays in Part II focus on the activities and practices through which we explore and negotiate the shared significance of our different recollections of the past, and the importance of sharing memory for constituting our identities. Views about self, identity, relation, and responsibility (all influenced by traditions in feminist philosophy) are examined through the lens of Campbell's relational conception of memory. She argues that remaining faithful to our past sometimes requires us to re-negotiate the boundaries between ourselves and the collectives to which we belong. In Part III, Campbell uses her relational theory of memory to address the challenges of sharing memory and renewing selves in contexts that are fractured by moral and political difference, especially those arising from a history of injustice and oppression. She engages in detail Canada's Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where survivor memories have the potential to illuminate the significance of the past for a shared future. The study of memory brings together philosophers, psychologists, historians, anthropologists, legal theorists, and political theorists and activists. Sue Campbell demonstrates a singular ability to put these many different areas of scholarship and activism into fruitful conversation with each other while also adding an original and powerful voice to the discussion.
Additional text
Christine M. Koggel and Rockney Jacobsen's recent editorial work brings together a valuable selection of Sue Campbell's essays on the ethics, politics, and epistemology of remembering ... The two overall themes that make this book a distinguished philosophical contribution to the interdisciplinary study of memory are Campbell's carefully argued points of emphasis on the inherently (socially) embedded nature of recollection and the need for theorizing successful remembering.
