Self-deception by Robert Trivers and politics of memory

The aim of this paper is to analyze the concept of “self-deception” by Robert Trivers in the context of politics of memory. Robert Trivers is a well known American scientist who developed the theory of self-deception. His book entitled “The Folly of Fools. The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life” is among the most important in this field of research. A particularly distinct branch of his inquiry regards historical narration. He gives several examples of self-deception in history of mankind. Some of his remarks seem to be valuable from the perspective of politics of memory which is defined as a kind of policy aimed at stimulating historical narration in a certain way. In order to analyze the application of self-deception to politics of memory, some examples given by Trivers are critically investigated. In the summary the evaluation of the Triver’s self-deception in the context of politics of memory is given.