Forgiveness is often spoken of as something praiseworthy and transformative. It is seen as essential to healthy human life in the face of trauma and injury. Yet it also raises a number of philosophical questions. For example, can forgiveness be morally required? Must wrongdoers have first made amends? In addition to these concerns, philosophers ask what forgiveness even is. In this talk, I consider the reasons philosophers have given for thinking that forgiveness is puzzling, and argue that they are key to understanding why we need it – but also why we don’t always have to forgive.
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Speaker
Lucy Allais is jointly appointed as William Miller professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and professor of philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She works partly in the history of philosophy and partly on emotions related to moral responsibility. She is currently working on human free agency.