Cultural Memory and Dialogue between Cultures. A Philosophical Perspective
Raffaella Santi

Abstract
Focusing on the concepts of collective memory and cultural memory, the articles connects the theories developed by two contemporary philosophers: Hans Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur. The aim is to explore the relationship between the ways we see our respective cultures and the ways we understand and judge other cultures. A key notion in this sense is historicity. As Gadamer put in Truth and Method, “historical consciousness should definitely succeed in taking into account its own historicity. In our opinion, it seems appropriate to conclude that staying within the boundaries of tradition does not limit the freedom of knowing, but rather lays the foundations of its possibility”. How we see our own culture determines our experience of otherness and constitutes the basis for intercultural dialogue that can be either positive or negative.

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