ABSTRACT

This chapter explores a number of issues about forgiveness that have attracted philosophical attention. It provides some significant insights into the dynamics of forgiveness. The chapter considers the claim made by Aurel Kolnai and Jacques Derrida that there is something prima facie deeply paradoxical about the notion of forgiveness. Forgiveness is often thought to be a conditio sine qua non for the resumption of normal relations between groups that has been at loggerheads. For instance, it is sometimes said that there can be no final healing of the wounds caused by the Second World War until the Jews collectively forgive the Germans for the Holocaust and the Japanese government seeks forgiveness for the atrocities committed by its nationals against Allied prisoners of war. Nevertheless forgiveness in the context of group relationships raises a number of philosophical difficulties. Least problematic are cases where members of offended groups grant forgiveness to the individual or collective agents responsible for their own suffering.