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Healing Multiculturalism: Middle-Ground Liberal Forgiveness in a Diverse Public Realm

Mookherjee

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Abstract

This article examines debates about political forgiveness in liberal, pluralist societies. Although the concept of forgiveness is not usually taken up by liberals, I outline a plausible conception by exploring two recent approaches. The first, ‘unattached articulation’, concept requires no real emotional change on the forgiver’s part, but rather a form of civic restraint. In contrast, the second version highlights a strong form of empathy for perpetrators. In spite of their advantages, each concept proves too extreme. The problems are revealed by focusing on the case of the Harkis, who fought for the French during the Algerian war. Often still marginalised in French society, their case helps to highlight the conceivability of a ‘middle-ground’ or moderate concept of political forgiveness. Its core rests on the forgiver’s care for the social world. While this concept brings considerable challenges also, and is not inevitable in any particular case, it entails a more plausible combination of emotional and rational shifts in the forgiver’s world-view. Although the article does not recommend forgiveness by any person or group, it observes, recalling Arendt’s idea of amor mundi or ‘love of the world’, that political forgiveness may sustain a viable connection between diverse citizens’ public and non-public lives.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 1, 2016
Publication Date Oct 11, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Philosophia
Print ISSN 0048-3893
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 44
Pages 1057-1078
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-016-9758-z
Keywords political forgiveness; liberalism; multiculturalism; love of the world; empathy; compassion
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-016-9758-z

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