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Tallis in Wonderland

Remembering Memory

Raymond Tallis examines a miracle of mentality.

In Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits (1878), Friedrich Nietzsche spoke of marriage as ‘a long conversation’. That is remarkably perceptive for a man who was a lifelong bachelor. While the conjugal conversation may often be tethered to practicalities, worries over this, that, or the other, views on world affairs large and small, or impressions of the people at the next table in a restaurant, or of a country visited for the first time, one of the most profound joys is that of sharing memories. Behind that seemingly ordinary pleasure is something extraordinary, and we take it too much for granted. If philosophy is untaking the taken-for-granted, this everyday miracle is a suitable theme for philosophical reflection.

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