Imagine your child built a castle wooden blocks. The child wanted your partner to see it when they got back the next day. That night, you accidentally knock over the castle. Realising that your child would be upset, you rebuild the exact structure.

I don’t think that the rebuilt castle would have the same importance as the original castle, even though it is, to all intents and purposes, the same structure..

I can’t envisage saving a photo of the £10 watch over the £1,000 watch itself unless the situation was somewhat tweaked (the partner who gave it to me had died, for example).

That said, I would save my photo album consisting solely of 100 or so pictures of sentimental items instead of the £1,000 watch (or even £1,000 in cash).

The question I find myself asking now is, which—if any—of these somewhat contrary answers to the same question is irrational?

@stuandgravy Indeed. However, imagine now that the nefarious inquisitor again replaces the item with an “absolutely identical (same scratches, markings, etc)” item but this time without your knowing it.

As we do not know any better, are our memories now somehow entwined into this identical watch?

There is no irrational ‘superstition’ there, rather an acknowledgement that sometimes physical items are tightly woven into our memories. The ‘identical’ item in the example above is patently not identical, because it is not the item around which the memory was formed.

I guess in reality I’m undecided about the statement that sentimentality is irrational. What makes me believe that it could be is my own experience with sentimental items:

Whilst purging my possessions a year or so ago I decided to take some advice I once heard: take a photograph of your sentimental items and throw out the originals! Without taking this to the extreme (some items I kept), it worked surprisingly well.

I realised that sentimentality is just a feeling, triggered by an item. I cherished the thoughts more than the items, but required the possessions because without them the person/moment it represented wouldn’t be remembered so vividly. After discarding 90% of my ‘sentimental items’ I felt no remorse.

Because of this I feel that there is at least some validity in the statement that sentimentality is irrational.

Thanks for the comment… it definitely made me think.

@LL That’s a damn good point! Probably the most rational thing I can imagine.

@Paul Great quote. Irrationality has been on my to-read list for a while now. I really should get on with reading it.