Description
Forgiveness is at one and the same time a very ordinary and quite challenging moral phenomenon. It is expected of children as a part of their moral development and of our moral exemplars. At the same time, we debate whether we could or even should forgive in certain circumstances. It is deeply personal, but also important to attempt to affect social and political healing. The Virtue of Forgiveness brings a diverse set of concerns to bear on forgiveness and forgiveness seeking. The chapters include insights from neuroscience, speech act theory, psychological research on both victims and perpetrators, social science, legal anthropology, holistic measures of health, interdisciplinary approaches to theology, the study of forgiveness tropes in literature, the philosophy of human action, and the study of value. Comprehensive reviews and conceptual arguments are complemented by case studies and data-driven hypothesis testing. The volume provides a singularly rich interdisciplinary conversation about forgiveness that covers traditional topics in the moral psychology of forgiveness while exploring new territory and incorporating new disciplinary voices. As these essays illustrate, forgiveness is vitally important to our mental and physical health, to our agency, and to the social structures that promote reconciliation in the face of conflict at different social scales. It is an especially apt subject for multi-disciplinary engagement, and this collection provides a representative sample of projects in the existing dialogue between psychology and philosophy while broadening the disciplines represented to include neuroscience, anthropology, social science, literature, and theology.
Table of Contents
IntroductionPart I. What Happens When We Forgive?1. What Do We Do When We Say "I Forgive You"?, Brandon Warmke2. The Neuroscience of Forgiveness: Genetics, Cardiac Regulation, and Neurological Correlates, Lindsey Root Luna and Charlotte V. O. WitvlietPart II. Remorse and Forgiveness Seeking3. Apology and Atonement: Psychological Research on Forgiveness Seeking, Blake Riek4. Remorse, Regret, and Forgiveness, Anthony BashPart III. Forgiveness, Character, and Human Agency5. Freedom, Forgiveness, and Normative Replacement, Ishtiyaque Haji6. Hope, Humility, and Forgiveness, Adam GreenPart IV. Forgiveness in Different Cultural Contexts7. Victimhood, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation: Northern Ireland as a Case Study, John D. Brewer and Bernadette C. Hayes8. Working to Cultivate Forgiveness: Social Practices, Religious Mores, and Law in Action, Arzoo Osanloo9. Theory and Research in Brazil on the Moral Development of Forgiveness, Júlio Rique and Cleonice CaminoPart V. The Value of Forgiveness10. A Poetics of Forgiveness: Tragic and Post-Tragic Recognition, Matthew J. Smith11. Forgiveness and Flourishing: Understanding Definitions, Models, Evidence, and Methods, Loren L. Toussaint, Sebastian Binyamin Skalski-Bednarz and Janusz Surzykiewicz12. The Good of Forgiveness, Eleonore Stump
