Forgiveness and Letting Go: Ways of Changing the Normative Landscape

Abstract

Forgiveness is often distinguished from other ways of eliminating (or reducing) blame, such as letting go. In this paper, I focus on a conception of forgiveness as normative landscape change (alteration of the rights and obligations of relevant parties), and explore the distinction between forgiveness—understood in this way—and letting go. I highlight the explanatory power of this approach for distinguishing forgiveness and letting go, and contrast it with an alternative way, in which the focus is instead primarily on a kind of attitude change. I conclude by comparing the implications of both forgiveness and letting go for other phenomena we care about, such as reconciliation.

Keywords

• blame
• forgiveness
• letting go
• normative landscape
• responsibility