Forgiveness and Retribution

by Holmgren, Margaret R.

• ISBN13: 9781107017962
• ISBN10: 1107017963
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-03-31
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Forgiveness and Retribution: Responding to Wrongdoing argues that ultimately, forgiveness is always the appropriate response to wrongdoing. In recent decades, many philosophers have claimed that unless certain conditions are met, we should resent those who have wronged us personally and that criminal offenders deserve to be punished. Conversely, Margaret Holmgren posits that we should forgive those who have ill-treated us, but only after working through a process of addressing the wrong. Holmgren then reflects on the kinds of laws and social practices a properly forgiving society would adopt.

Table of Contents

Introduction and overview

The nature of forgiveness and resentment

The moral analysis of the attitudes of forgiveness and resentment defined

The moral analysis of the attitudes of self-forgiveness and self-condemnation

Philosophical underpinnings of the basic attitudes: forgiveness, resentment, and the nature of persons

Moral theory: justice and desert

The public response to wrongdoing

Restorative justice: the public response to wrongdoing and the process of addressing the wrong

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