Recollections are claims. We all know this in our clearer moments. A claim is not a fact. A claim is an assertion of what the facts are that is either true or false.
Memory is not an entity independent of choice and interpretation.
It is somewhat tragic that all we have to guide us is our past experience, that our past experience is shaped by our interpretations, and that our interpretations are shaped by our choices.
The record of the past, insofar as I grasp it, is a claim. Who has testified? Why? What do we do with the deep skepticism such questions birth? How should the record of the past, claim that it is, serve as authority for the present?
