ABSTRACT
Forgiveness primordially refers to a context of 'interpersonal' relations, in the narrower sense of relations between two parties 'on a footing of equality', neither of them being the other's 'superior' or having 'authority' over him. This chapter explores the Logical Paradoxy of Forgiveness with a straightforward analysis and the concept of delimitation. It shows that the paradoxy can to some extent be solved by a more subtle version of the 'rigorous' logical analysis implied and that something at any rate of the idea of Forgiveness remains tenable. The question is of obvious ethical significance, for the value—and possible disvalue—attaching to Forgiveness has, in spite of the Christian tinge of the concept, engaged and is worthy of engaging the interest of moralists, Christian and non-Christian of various shades. Historically speaking, the biblical phraseology seems to take for granted a social medium in which vindictiveness was rampant and people tended to identify it with retribution.
