Any society succeeds or fails depending upon the understanding of its past. Public health is the responsibility of all, but some have a professional responsibility for it. So should be the public memory, and, equally, there should be a profession devoted to it. Its science should be critical and corrective, based on the process of refining memory into wisdom. I named the nascent science first `heritology' (1982) and then `mnemosophy' (1987, when I was already teaching). My intention with the latter term, implying a science of public memory, was that it should send a message through its very derivation: not just any memory but the one ethically founded and socially responsible. Heritage does its purpose only if turned into wisdom.
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