When:
Friday, October 13, 2023
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM CT
Where: Harris Hall, L 07, 1881 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Contact:
Emily Berry
(847) 491-3656
Group: Philosophy Colloquium Series
Category: Academic
Towards a Relational Stance
It is often thought that cultivating empathy helps us give up our resentment against the person who has harmed us. But philosophers have puzzled over why empathetically taking up the point of view of someone who has wronged us should help us forgive them; indeed, many philosophers have regarded this route to forgiveness with suspicion. I argue that empathy can provide a route to forgiveness not by undermining one’s reasons to be angry nor by destabilizing the victim’s perspective on the harm done to them, but instead by shifting the victim’s evaluative outlook.