Memory, Personal Identity, and Moral Responsibility

Abstract

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.