"Forgiveness and Reconciliation"
Abstract: I argue for a new account of forgiveness: forgiveness as openness to reconciliation with the wrongdoer. Specifically, X forgives Y for Y’s wrong action W in virtue of X’s being open to reconciliation with Y with respect to W. As I understand it, a victim is “open to reconciliation” with the wrongdoer in virtue of playing his part in reconciling – i.e., in virtue of having attitudes and intentions toward the wrongdoer that would reconcile them, if the wrongdoer’s attitudes and intentions are what they need to be for reconciliation. The main advantage of my view is that it explains the power of forgiveness to effect reconciliation with a repentant wrongdoer. Other views of forgiveness – for example, that forgiveness is foreswearing resentment or that forgiveness is releasing the wrongdoer from obligations incurred by his wrongdoing – fail to account for the emotional movement toward the offender that is crucial for explaining that power. Connecting forgiveness and reconciliation also reveals that we can forgive on different relationship levels. This crucial nuance helps to explain why forgiveness sometimes reconciles a close relationship with a repentant offender but sometimes does not.
Professor Strabbing is an Assistant Professor at Fordham University.
