We live in a culture of apology and forgiveness. But while there are a few think
ers who are critical of forgiveness as being too supine, and extol the virtues o
f retribution and 'getting even,' philosopher and intellectual Martha C. Nussbau
m criticizes forgiveness from the other side: that in the realm of personal rela
tions, forgiveness is at its heart inquisitorial and disciplinary.
In this vo
lume based on her 2014 Locke Lectures, Nussbaum paints a startling new portrait
that strips the notion of forgiveness down to its Judeo-Christian roots, where i
t was structured by the moral relationship between a score-keeping God and penit
ent, self-abasing, and erring mortals. The relationship between a wronged human
and another is, she says, based on this primary God-human relationship. Nussbaum
agrees with Nietzsche in seeing in forgiveness a displaced vindictiveness and a
concealed resentment that are ungenerous and unhelpful in human relations.
