Philosophy in the Contemporary World

Volume 11, Issue 2, Fall/Winter 2004

Paul Newberry
Pages 73-79

The Three Dimensions of Forgiveness

Recent philosophical literature contains several definitions of ‘forgiveness.’ These fail because the meaning of one part of a complex notion is taken as the meaning of the whole. Ordinary language use indicates three kinds of sufficient conditions for forgiveness where by people canforgive by meeting any one of those conditions.