Table of Contents

    • Acknowledgments     ix
    • Prologue     xiii
    • Forgiveness Ancient and Modern     1
    • Pardon, Excuse, and Forgiveness in Ancient Philosophy: The Standpoint of Perfection     2
    • Bishop Butler's Seminal Analysis     19
    • Resentment     22
    • Forgiveness     31
    • Forgiveness at Its Best     38
    • Forgiveness, Revenge, and Resentment     38
    • Resentment and Self-Respect     43
    • To Be Forgiven: Changing Your Ways, Contrition, and Regret     47
    • Forgiving: A Change of Heart, and Seeing the Offender and Oneself in a New Light     53
    • The Conditions of Forgiveness: Objections and Replies     59
    • Atonement and the Payment or Dismissal of a Debt     60
    • Forgiveness as a Gift and Unconditional Forgiveness     62
    • Praiseworthy Conditional Forgiveness     69
    • Moral Monsters, Shared Humanity, and Sympathy     72
    • Moral Monsters     73
    • Shared Humanity and Fallibility, Compassion, and Pity     77
    • Sympathy     83
    • The Unforgivable and the Unforgiven     90
    • Forgiveness, Narrative, and Ideals     98
    • Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Friendship     110
    • Imperfect Forgiveness     113
    • Ideal and Non-ideal Forgiveness: An Inclusive or Exclusive Relation?     113
    • Third-Party Forgiveness     117
    • Unilateral Forgiveness: The Dead and the Unrepentant     120
    • Forgiving the Dead     120
    • Forgiving the Unrepentant     121
    • Self-Forgiveness     122
    • For Injuries to Others     123
    • For Injuries to Oneself     125
    • For Injuries One Could Not Help Inflicting     128
    • Forgiveness and Moral Luck     130
    • Political Apology, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation     134
    • Apology and Forgiveness Writ Large: Questions and Distinctions     135
    • Political Apology among the One and Many     146
    • Many to Many Apology: Test Cases     147
    • The University of Alabama and the Legacy of Slavery     147
    • Apology, Reparations, and the Wartime Internment of Japanese-Americans     152
    • Desmond Tutu and South African Churches     157
    • King Hussein in Israel     159
    • The United States Senate and the Victims of Lynching     161
    • One to Many Apology: Two Failures     163
    • Robert McNamara's War and Mea Culpa     163
    • Richard Nixon's Resignation and Pardon     165
    • Traditional Rituals of Reconciliation: Apology, Forgiveness, or Pardon?     167
    • Apology and the Unforgivable     172
    • Apology, Forgiveness, and Civic Reconciliation     174
    • A Culture of Apology and of Forgiveness: Risks and Abuses     180
    • Political Apology, Narrative, and Ideals     183
    • Truth, Memory, and Civic Reconciliation without Apology     195
    • The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: An Interpretation     201
    • Reconciliation without Apology?     206
    • Epilogue     211
    • Bibliography     215
    • Index     233