Rethinking just memory: The triple balance of representation, debt, and forgetting in the thought of Paul Ricœur

The concept of the “duty of remembrance” acquired significant prominence in postwar France, coinciding with the increasing moral centrality attributed to the victim. However, the conceptual ambiguity also gave rise to abuses of memory, prompting critical reflection. In this context, Paul Ricœur offers a nuanced response by articulating a theory of just memory, structured around a tripartite equilibrium. First, drawing on Freud’s conception of the “work of mourning,” Ricœur introduces the “work of memory” as an epistemological detour designed to mitigate the practical risks posed by the moral burden of memory, thereby achieving a balance between faithful representation of the past and the ethical demand of debt repayment. Second, Ricœur replaces the idea of “the past as history” with “the past as memory,” aiming to transform the otherness of the past and foster communication between individual and collective memory, thus mediating between personal testimony and historical writing. Third, he proposes a balance between memory and forgetting from a de-collectivized and cosmopolitan perspective, turning toward an open phenomenology of the future in which excessive memory and active forgetting are held in productive tension.