Cognitive Dimension of Historical Memory in Paul Ricoeur's Concept

Abstract

The article considers Paul Ricoeur's concept of historical memory. Its three parts include the phenomenology of memory, the epistemology of history and the hermeneutics of the historical state, directly related to the notion of duty. At all three levels, the cognitive component is very important, but its nature differs significantly. From Ricoeur's perspective, the duty “not to forget” turns out to be an oath of allegiance to the very ability of human consciousness to construct and reinterpret temporal distance, while maintaining a sense of shock or uniqueness of the event that cannot be replaced by a conventional narrative. It is proved that this approach can be a productive basis for coordinating different conceptual approaches that have emerged in contemporary cognitive research.