Recall...

The emotion of Moral Horror

[our response to evil] differs from our standard reactions to ordinary wrongdoing, where we may find ourselves responding with differing degrees of dislike, disapproval, dismissiveness, sometimes with disgust and contempt. In contrast, there are some cases in which we have a phenomenologically distinct response: moral horror, revulsion, sometimes a kind of incomprehension, often a sense of moral diminution, defilement, and even despair.

Primo Levi:

“Such acts ruin the world, irreparably; they can never be redeemed.”

Today's question

Are there irredeemable actions?

Are there actions that cannot be forgiven?

Are there actions that must not be forgiven?

A prior question: what is forgiveness?

Duh, look it up.

Websters: “to forgive”

1. to stop feeling anger toward (someone who has done something wrong) : to stop blaming (someone).
2. to stop feeling anger about (something) : to forgive someone for (something wrong).
3. to stop requiring payment of (money that is owed).

“to stop requiring payment of (money that is owed).”

Not what we're looking for.

“to stop feeling anger about (something) : to forgive someone for (something wrong).”

Not very helpful if we don't already know what “to forgive” means.

“to stop feeling anger about (something) : to forgive someone for (something wrong).”

You can forgive an action that isn't wrong. A mob boss might forgive his nephew's confession to the police.

You can forgive a poor athletic performance

“to stop feeling anger about (something) : to forgive someone for (something wrong).”

And do you have to stop feeling anger to forgive? Can't I choose to forgive, even if I still feel anger?

“to stop feeling anger about (something) : to forgive someone for (something wrong).”

And if I was hit by a truck, or lobotomized, and felt nothing thereafter, would I thereby forgive?

“to stop feeling anger toward (someone who has done something wrong) : to stop blaming (someone).”

All the same problems…

Uh oh, maybe it's not so easy.

Might be easier to start with what forgiveness is not

You get in my car and drive it away. I feel anger.

You later explain that my wife gave you permission to borrow the car.

My anger ceases.

Did I forgive you?

No, you did nothing wrong. You action was justified, not forgiven.

You scream at me and call me names. I feel anger.

You later explain, however, that you had just been evicted from your apartment and were having the worst day of your life.

My anger ceases.

Did I forgive you?

No—I excused you. I came to feel that, although your action was wrong, you were not to blame. Since you weren't to blame, there was nothing to forgive.

My brother is chronically rude and violent, spendthrift. I feel anger.

Over the years, I become used to it. He sucks, and that's the way it is.

My anger ceases.

Did I forgive him?

No. We might say I “accept” his behavior, even if I don't excuse it, approve of it, or forgive it.

OK, enough. What is it then?

Emotional theories of forgiveness

Maybe the idea that forgiveness involves some sort of cessation of negative emotion is sort of a good start.

Could the negative emotion be anger?

The examples above make it seem like it's probably not.

Consider the brother example. Anger is usually a “hot” emotion.

It seems often to fade with time, or to be quenched by other feelings, like despair.

Why is that?

Not sure…

Anger is very much in the body, it seems to have something to do with some kind of physical activation.

What negative emotion do I still feel towards my prodigal brother?

I feel resentment.

What is resentment?

It's a cold, negative, vindictive emotion, that incorporates a wish to see someone diminished.

Close to hate.

(Maybe hate is resentment that incorporates a wish to see someone completely diminished.)

If my resentment of my brother does fade to nothing, over the years, as I come to see something good in him, maybe I have (slowly, gradually) forgiven him for being the way he is.

Is cessation of resentment forgiveness?

No - resentment also ceases when an action is excused or justified.

And, it also ceases when you go into a coma, or have your memory wiped.

It seems like the resentment needs to cease via the right kind of process.

How to forgive

You can't forgive by dying.

Maybe ceasing resentment while alive?

BUT: Could you take a pill to forgive?

It seems not—this would be basically the same as amnesia.

Maybe ceasing resentment while alive?

You need to forgive as the result a rational process, not a causal one.

Could you forgive in exchange for money?

Probably not - at least not directly.

The process requires the right kinds of reasons.

Is the reason “it wasn't so bad”?

No. That's justifying.

Is the reason “it wasn't your fault”?

No. That's excusing.

Forgiveness requires a reason that is not a reduction of the severity or blameworthiness of the offence.

What could such a reason be?

The Paradox of Forgiveness

True forgiveness apparently requires simultaneously regarding an action or person as blameworthy, and also the cessation of the feeling that they should be blamed.

How can we think something is blameworthy, and not still not feel it should be blamed or sanctioned?

It's like we're contradicting ourselves, saying one thing and then the opposite.

Seems impossible, irrational.

Also seems unjust.

Justice requires uniformity, a law or rule, a lack of exceptions.

Forgiveness, leading to mercy, insofar as it means not responding to genuine wrongdoing, seems like “making an exception”.

This tension has been noted for a long time.

Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution; justice without mercy is cruelty. St. Aquinas, commentary on Matthew

When and what should we forgive?

When and what should we not?

Next time.