Heinrich-Heine-University, Dusseldorf
Dates of visit: September 2010 - July 2011
Project title: Forgiveness as a moral problem
Project description: Forgiveness is a core element of social life and of our everyday morality. During my stay at the CPNSS, I intend to investigate the nature and the normative assessment of forgiveness. Starting from an account of forgiveness as a withdrawal of retributive emotions, I analyse the social function of these emotions, stressing that they serve as a means of social regulation and as expressions of self-respect. In the light of this evaluation of retributive emotions, I criticize four arguments in favour of forgiveness. These relate to (i) the social value of forgiveness itself, (ii) the temporal distance between an act of wrongdoing and the present, (iii) repentance on the part of the wrongdoer, (iv) a rupture in the wrongdoer's personal identity. As none of these arguments is persuasive, I propose that instead of asking whether and when forgiveness is justified we ought to try to find out criteria determining the aptness of our retributive emotions. The value of forgiveness turns out to be instrumental: it is a means of restricting the action-guiding force of retributive emotions. By virtue of forgiveness, we can keep these emotions within limits in which they are socially beneficial.