Volume 23, Issue 2, 2013
Matthew T. Nowachek
Pages 21-52
Challenging the Violence of Retributivism: Kierkegaard, Works of Love, and the Dialectic of Edification
This essay begins with a brief critical outline of the retributivist view of interpersonal justice, specifically focusing on the tendency of retributivism to leave victims with neither healing nor closure, but rather with a negative emotional remainder. It is argued that this phenomenon is indicative in part of a certain form of violence, what I identify as the perpetual retribution that extends from fixation of the identity of the offender as offender. In response to this issue, I draw on the categories developed by Søren Kierkegaard in his Works of Love. More specifically, Kierkegaard’s reflection “Love Hides a Multitude of Sins” serves as a powerful critique of the retributivist position, and the reflection “The Victory of the Conciliatory Spirit in Love” provides an insightful account of the requirements of interpersonal justice if it is to avoid violence. In the end, it is argued that Kierkegaard’s account of love and edification represents a promising alternative to retributivism.