Royal Institute Philosophy Talk: Alessandra Tanesini, Remembering Online

What we remember is a central expression of who we are. So what should we remember, and what is best forgotten? Talks will focus on various aspects of the question, such as trauma, conflict resolution, forgiving and forgetting, memorialization, and constructing identities on- and off-line. Explore these questions, among others, through the lens of philosophy at the 2024/5 London Lectures.

How we remember and forget online

Speaker: Alessandra Tanesini is Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University. She is the author of An Introduction to Feminist Epistemologies (Blackwell, 1999), of Wittgenstein: A Feminist Interpretation (Polity, 2004), of The Mismeasure of the Self: A Study in Vice Epistemology (Oxford University Press, 2021) and the co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Humility (Routledge, 2021) and of Polarisation, Arrogance, and Dogmatism: Philosophical Perspectives (Routledge, 2021). Her current research lies at the intersection of ethics, the philosophy of language, and epistemology with a focus on epistemic virtue and vice, silencing, prejudice, and ignorance. She is currently completing work on a new book provisionally entitled Scaffolded Knowledge in Epistemic Niches: A Study in Social Epistemology.

In this talk, I explore how some digital technologies have changed how we remember and forget collectively and privately online. I focus on two different examples: digital archives and social media. Often, archives are repositories of cultural and collective memories. Their digitalization has changed how information is stored, curated, and how it is accessed by users. These changes, promoted by what the technology facilitates or obstructs, risk causing novel forms of injustice where some collective histories are unfairly forgotten or distorted. In the second part of the talk, I focus on Social Networking Sites and especially Facebook as platforms where memories are shared, loved ones are memorialised, and where at times some feel shunned and forgotten. I explore some of the consequences of offloading one's private memories onto digital platforms and sharing them with other users.

Host or Publisher The Royal Institute of Philosophy