Ethics

What good is an apology? For example, the Australian government has decided to formally apologize for the historical wrongs against the Aborigines. Isn't this just an outlet for guilt, rather than actual concern for the victims?

Comments

I think there may be two rather different questions here. The first is the general one that you begin with: what good is an apology? The second is whether in a particular case -- the apology by the Australian government in your example -- the apology might be simply a sop to the conscience. I can't pretend to answer the more particular question since I know so little about the details of the case, but what of the larger issue?

Apologies by themselves may not be enough; there are plenty of cases where much more than an apology is called for. But for most of us, the practice makes sense from the inside. Suppose I have said something hurtful to you that was entirely uncalled for. Then I've wronged you. At the least, I may have made you feel bad for no good reason. I may also have made you look bad in front of others. I've put the moral relationship between us out of whack. When I apologize, I acknowledge that what I did was wrong, and in doing so, I go at least some distance toward restoring the moral relationship between us. In making my thoughtless remarks, I have abased you. In offering my sincere apology, I abase myself before you.

Now one could ask: what sort of magic is afoot here? Can we really make sense of this talk of "putting the moral relationship out of whack" and of "restoring the relationship?" Those would be perfectly good questions, well worth a full philosophical airing. But if I were to try to provide good answers to them (something that would call for a lot of careful thought) it would be on the assumption that there is some sense to be made of this metaphorical-seeming talk, and that the philosophical task here is the contructive one of trying to illuminate it.

Why? Because for most of us, the practice of offering and accepting apologies makes sense "from the inside." We know what it feels like to recognize that we've wronged someone and apologizing. While the apology may have the effect of making us feel better, a sincere aplogy isn't just offered in order to make ourselves feel better. It's a way of acknowledging that we did wrong. Likewise, most of us know what it's like to accept a sincere apology and to feel that it allows both ourselves and the person offering it to get beyond the incident that called for the apology. From outside the practice, this might seem mysterious; from the inside, it seems transparent.

Now of course, it's complicated. For example: I might accept someone's apology and yet still consider what they did to be a sign that it would be unwise to continue to have a relationship with them. And unaccepted apologies pose their own interesting questions about where the moral balance lies. But overall, apologies do often seem meaningful, both for the people who offer them and for the people who receive them. And while the inner workings of all this make an interesting subject for reflection, that doesn't seem to give us a reason to doubt that apologies really can be meaningful gestures.

Read another response by Allen Stairs

Read another response about Ethics