Topics Ethics

Question If it's generally accepted that we are able to punish and criticize on behalf of others, are we also able to forgive on behalf of others?

Accepted:
September 8, 2010

Comments

I think that only one person is in a position to grant forgiveness--the person from whom one is seeking forgiveness. When one seeks forgiveness, one is asking someone against whom one has trespassed in some way to absolve one of the trepass, and, thus to restore your relationship, and only the particular person is in a position to do so.

Forgiveness thus, I think, belongs to the class of what the philosopher J. L. Austin called "performative utterances": actions, such as promising, christening, and marrying--there are many others--that are undertaken by saying something. And just as not just anyone can marry two people by saying 'I now pronounce you husband and wife'--in order for this to, as Austin says, "come off," the person who utters the words must have the authority to marry two people, and utter those words in the right circumstances--not just anyone can grant forgiveness by saying 'I forgive you' or the equivalent: only the person from whom forgiveness is being sought can grant forgiveness to the one seeking it by saying 'I forgive you.'

Question If it's generally accepted that we are able to punish and criticize on behalf of others, are we also able to forgive on behalf of others? Accepted:September 8, 2010

Question If it's generally accepted that we are able to punish and criticize on behalf of others, are we also able to forgive on behalf of others?

Accepted:
September 8, 2010