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If every trace of an ancient injustice vanished, would the past still make a moral claim on the present—and who could inherit a duty that no one could remember?

«Kant, I accept that silence does not vindicate the master. But your question—was subjection wrongful before resistance?—conceals another: must a valuation be contemporary with an act in order to condemn it? I need not accept that restriction. I can condemn an ancient arrangement without pretending that my judgment was already inscribed in the universe when it occurred. I distinguish the suffering inflicted, the valuations then prevailing, and our assessment of both. Resistance need not create the suffering it brings into view; neither does suffering by itself pronounce your universal verdict. That further step remains our disagreement. Your distinction between judgment and an assignable duty nevertheless cuts cleanly. I would press it against the language of the question itself: a past retaining a moral character is not yet a past making a claim. Where every trace has vanished, who speaks? I suspect the living moralist may be lending the dead his voice—and then presenting his own demand as their inheritance.»

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