The past is undeniably special for human beings. To a large extent, both individuals and collectives define themselves through history. Moreover, humans seem to have a special way of cognitively representing the past: episodic memory. As opposed to other ways of representing knowledge, remembering the past in episodic memory brings with it the ability to become a witness. Episodic memory allows us to determine what of our knowledge about the past comes from our own experience and thereby what parts of the past we can give testimony about. In this article, we aim to give an account of the special status of the past by asking why humans have developed the ability to give testimony about it. We argue that the past is special for human beings because it is regularly, and often principally, the only thing that can determine present social realities such as commitments, entitlements, and obligations. Because the social effects of the past often do not leave physical traces behind, remembering the past and the ability to bear testimony it brings is necessary for coordinating social realities with other individuals.

中文翻译：

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见证、记忆和证明：为什么过去对人类来说很特别。


不可否认，过去对于人类来说是特殊的。在很大程度上，个人和集体都是通过历史来定义自己的。此外，人类似乎有一种特殊的认知方式来表示过去：情景记忆。与其他表示知识的方式相反，在情景记忆中记住过去带来了成为见证者的能力。情景记忆使我们能够确定关于过去的哪些知识来自我们自己的经历，从而确定过去的哪些部分我们可以提供见证。在这篇文章中，我们的目的是通过询问为什么人类能够发展出对过去的特殊地位进行见证的能力来解释过去的特殊地位。我们认为，过去对于人类来说是特殊的，因为它通常并且通常是主要的，是唯一能够决定当前社会现实（例如承诺、权利和义务）的东西。由于过去的社会影响通常不会留下物理痕迹，因此记住过去以及提供它带来的见证的能力对于协调社会现实与其他个人是必要的。