Forgetting
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
In "What is a Nation?" Ernest Renan states what has become one of the most famous and enduring ideas of nationalism. "Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation."--Sholem Stein "O most ingenious Theuth ... you who are the father of letters ... this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth."--Phaedrus by Plato |
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To forget is to lose remembrance of; to cease remembering. It can refer to a person or an animal forgetting something, or, the forgetting by a society, as in a 'forgotten hero' or a 'forgotten book'.
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Of people
Forgetting (retention loss) refers to apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in an individual's long term memory. It is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are unable to be recalled from memory storage. Problems with remembering, learning and retaining new information are a few of the most common complaints of older adults.
Of societies
Things are forgetten when knowledge of them has been lost, when it is no longer remembered, such as Pompeii after the eruption.
Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation said Ernest Renan in "What is a Nation?". See also oblivion, the ash heap of history.
Etymology
From Middle English forgeten, forgiten, forȝeten, forȝiten, from Old English forġietan (“to forget”), from Proto-Germanic *fragetaną (“to give up, forget”), equivalent to for- + get. Cognate with Scots forget, forȝet (“to forget”), West Frisian ferjitte, forjitte (“to forget”), Dutch vergeten (“to forget”), German vergessen (“to forget”), Swedish förgäta (“to forget”).
See also
- Amnesia
- Cultural memory
- Forgotten
- Historiography
- History
- Memory
- Oblivion
- Repressed memory
- Tip of the tongue