How the Defeated Grieve: Philosophy and Memory

There is a peculiarly philosophical use of memory that is not primarily about the retrieval of information. The aim of this essay is to evoke this memory. The evocation takes two forms: a reading of Virgil’s great character, Dido, who wants to be able to distinguish grieving from feeling defeated, and a tribute to the martyred Boethius, a late Roman philosopher who sees in his unjust treatment a reminder not to be unjust. If philosophical memory has practical value, it is not that it makes our lives easier; it is that it keeps us from becoming the people we don’t want to be.