Royal Institute Philosophy Talk - Erich Matthes, Conservation & Remebering

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.

Conservation as a Method of Remembering (and forgetting)

Speaker: Erich Hatala Matthes is Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Wellesley College, where he is also a member of the Advisory Faculty for Environmental Studies. He is the author of over 20 articles and book chapters on the ethics, politics, and aesthetics of cultural heritage, art, and the environment, as well as two books published by Oxford University Press. The first, Drawing the Line: What to Do with the Work of Immoral Artists from Museums to the Movies was published in 2022. The second, What to Save and Why: Identity, Authenticity, and the Ethics of Conservation, will be published in the UK in January 2025.

It is natural to think of conservation (whether we are concerned with saving places, artworks, traditions, keepsakes, etc.) as going hand in hand with processes of remembering. We save these things so that, among other aims, they are not forgotten. However, some easily overlooked aspects of conservation can render its relationship with remembering more complex than it initially appears. Who is empowered to play a role in determining what to save and why to save it? Depending on the answer, we can discover how the refusal to conserve can play a role in remembering as well.

Host or Publisher The Royal Institute of Philosophy