ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the wrongdoer's apology and the victim's forgiveness. The minimal apology, sorry, corresponds to the minimal responsibility. The chapter considers the apology to have been made, and it passes onto the next step in the blame game, where the victim has to respond. One available response is to forgive the wrongdoer for the wrong, in so far as the victim is able to do so, but such forgiveness might require the fulfilment of certain conditions. Charles Griswold's book offers one of the most recent and certainly one of the most systematic and subtle analyses of forgiveness. He follows a number of philosophers who claim that forgiveness must be norm-governed and conditional. Garrard and McNaughton argue that genuine forgiveness should not depend on the wrongdoer fulfilling general or specific conditions. Jeffrey Blustein offers an account of self-forgiveness as a particular kind of taking responsibility.
