Relation to others· Bonds
Unconditionalism
Axis: Forgiveness — Should forgiveness be unconditional, or does it depend on the wrongdoer's repentance?
True forgiveness forgives only the unforgivable: if it requires apologies, reparation, or repentance, it is merely a transaction. Genuine forgiveness is a free, unconditional gift that exceeds any logic of desert.
Philosophers 4
Show inferred positions (4)
Senecainferable
Clemency, the prince's master virtue, disposes one to gentleness in setting penalties and to indulgence toward another's fault, from greatness of soul rather than from the offender's desert. This inclination to excuse and to understand human failings leans toward an unconditional remission, grounded in the magnanimity of the .
On Clemency, II, 3-7 (clemency, the soul's inclination to gentleness) · On Anger, II, 28-34 (being indulgent, for we all err)
Descartesinferable
From follows a readiness to excuse rather than to despise: the generous, Descartes writes, can hold no one in contempt, and being inclined to excuse the faults of others, they believe that whoever commits them does so rather through lack of knowledge than through lack of goodwill. Must forgiveness be made to depend on the wrongdoer's repentance? This principled leniency, prior to any reparation, leans toward a clemency close to the unconditional.
The Passions of the Soul, arts. 154 and 187
Marcus Aureliusinferable
The wrongdoer acts in ignorance: one cannot resent him as a free culprit, but should instruct him, or bear with him and let it pass. This inclination to excuse, grounded in the involuntary fault, leans toward a generous remission, without reaching a doctrine of unconditional forgiveness.
Meditations, II, 1 · Meditations, IX, 42 · Meditations, XI, 18
Michel de Montaigneinferable
What revolts Montaigne most is cruelty, "the extreme of all the vices". From this horror springs a clemency: vengeance and ferocious punishment repel him, and he praises the gentleness, the magnanimity that disarms an enemy rather than crushing him. Without theorizing an unconditional forgiveness, his leaning carries him to excuse rather than to punish, to understand the common human weakness rather than to demand requital.
Essays, II, 11, "Of Cruelty" and I, 1, "By Diverse Means We Arrive at the Same End"
- PrescriptiveMoralThe person and the deed
Is forgiving to distinguish the wrongdoer from their wrong, in order to receive them beyond what they did, or is it to excuse the deed itself and betray those who suffered from it?
the wrongdoer