Very interesting. It seems this line of thought could be extended in a opposite ways. For example, it is sometimes good to forget and forgetting is often easier when you know by testimony than when you know from personal experience. Similarly, the psychoanalytic idea of working through suggests that we sometimes benefit if we can "unlearn" patterns that developed, perhaps for good prudential or understandable "proto-rational" reasons, in the past, and it seems like people who have first hand experience and memory may have more working through to do than those who "learned" to act in sub-optimal ways as the result of accepting testimony. Interestingly though working through is often thought to involve recovering or re-activating memories in order to develop patterns to replace the ones that at first developed in response to the events remembered. Perhaps your your detailed discussion might be extended to shed light on and assess these initially plausible ideas.
Very interesting. It seems this line of thought could be extended in a opposite ways. For example, it is sometimes good to forget and forgetting is often easier when you know by testimony than when you know from personal experience. Similarly, the psychoanalytic idea of working through suggests that we sometimes benefit if we can "unlearn" patterns that developed, perhaps for good prudential or understandable "proto-rational" reasons, in the past, and it seems like people who have first hand experience and memory may have more working through to do than those who "learned" to act in sub-optimal ways as the result of accepting testimony. Interestingly though working through is often thought to involve recovering or re-activating memories in order to develop patterns to replace the ones that at first developed in response to the events remembered. Perhaps your your detailed discussion might be extended to shed light on and assess these initially plausible ideas.
Super interesting thought, Brad. A friend who is a therapist reached out to me with a similar reaction. Hoping we can do more on these topics soon!