Forgiveness: An introduction

This chapter introduces the notion of forgiveness. It discusses the nature of forgiveness, including foundational issues such as moral wrongdoing, moral blameworthiness, and standing to forgive. It articulates several accounts of the nature of forgiveness, including emotion accounts, revenge and punishment-forbearance accounts, and performative accounts, and discusses the difference between monist and pluralist accounts. Turning to the norms of forgiveness, the chapter discusses several moral questions raised in the philosophical literature on forgiveness. The chapter concludes by summarizing and contextualizing the chapters in this volume.