Forgiveness and hatred

Ethical Perspectives 17 (4):603 (2010)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Philosophical accounts of forgiveness ordinarily emphasize three components: i) the overcoming of hostile emotions toward the wrongdoer; ii) a change of heart toward the wrongdoer, which goes beyond the cessation of hostile emotions and involves the acquisition of a more positive attitude toward him or her; iii) a willingness to restore the relationship and proceed toward reconciliation. In this paper, I examine these three presumed components, endorsing the first but rejecting the second and the third as unnecessary features of forgiveness. I thus argue that forgiveness is, first and foremost, a unilateral, intra-psychic process that does not necessarily lead to reconciliation or to the fostering of friendly relations. The paper has three parts. In the first part, I argue that overcoming resentment toward one’s assailant by coming to view oneself more favourably lies at the core of forgiveness. In the second part, I show that one need not be able to view one’s assailant in a different and more favourable light to be able to overcome one’s resentment and forgive one’s assailant. Furthermore, in the third part, I argue that a wholly negative view of the wrongdoer, moral hatred and a refusal to be reconciled with him or her are compatible with forgiving him or her

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Forgiveness, Anger, and Virtue in an Aristotelean Perspective.Gregory Sadler - 2008 - Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 82:229-247.
Hatred and Forgiveness.Santiago Zabala - 2012 - Common Knowledge 18 (2):364-364.
Hatred and Forgiveness (review).Sarah Alison Miller - 2011 - Symploke 19 (1-2):411-414.
Focusing Forgiveness.András Szigeti - 2014 - Journal of Value Inquiry 48 (2):217-234.
Hatred as an Attitude.Thomas Brudholm - 2010 - Philosophical Papers 39 (3):289-313.
What Christians Believe about Forgiveness.Stephen N. Williams - 2011 - Studies in Christian Ethics 24 (2):147-156.
Aquinas on Attachment, Envy, and Hatred in the "Summa Theologica".Keith Green - 2007 - Journal of Religious Ethics 35 (3):403 - 428.
Supererogatory Forgiveness.Espen Gamlund - 2010 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 53 (6):540-564.
Hampton on Forgiveness.Linda Radzik - 2011 - APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 10 (2):1-6.
The Prudential Value of Forgiveness.Stephen Ingram - 2013 - Philosophia 41 (4):1069-1078.

Analytics

Added to PP
2014-03-06

Downloads
24 (#563,024)

6 months
5 (#246,492)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Citations of this work

Can the Paradox of Forgiveness Be Dissolved?Oliver Hallich - 2013 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16 (5):999-1017.
Three knights of faith on Job’s suffering and its defeat.N. Verbin - 2017 - International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 78 (4-5):382-395.
Injustice as Injury, Forgiveness as Healing.Raja Bahlul - 2016 - In Court Lewis (ed.), Explorations of Forgiveness. Wilmington, DE, USA: pp. 59-89.
Can God forgive our trespasses?N. Verbin - 2013 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 74 (2):181-199.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references