Public Forgiveness in Post-Conflict Contexts: Volume 10 (Series on Transitional Justice, STJ) - Tapa dura

There seems to be a pervasive trend towards public apologies, forms of national introspection and appeals to grant forgiveness. Archbishop Tutu's motto that "there is no future without forgiveness" is well known. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has become an important model and source of inspiration for many other countries that want to deal with their past grievances and internal conflicts. This book discusses the role of forgiveness within processes of peace building and transitional justice. Does 'forgiveness' enable a public or political use of the term? Is it possible to forgive on behalf of others, and if so, under what conditions? These conceptual questions are related to reflections on the cultural and religious contexts of expressing forgiveness. Do forgiving words promote a willingness to look ahead and prevent a relapse into conflicting views on the poisonous past? Or do they bring along aversion? Maybe the 'push' towards forgiveness is experienced as highly unfair.

Bass van Stokkom is a sociologist and author of more than twenty books. He carried out research at the interface of Ethics, Criminology and Administrative Sciences. The author is affiliated to the Criminological Institute of the Faculty of Law at the Radboud University and to the Department of Administrative Sciences of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. Neelke Doorn is assistant professor at the Philosophy Department of the Technical University of Delft. She has a background in Civil Engineering (Delft 1997, BSc+MSc - Cum Laude), Philosophy (Leiden 2005, BA+MA - Cum Laude) and Law (Open University 2015, LLB - Cum Laude). Her MA thesis appeared as a monograph in the book series "Psychiatrie en Filosofie" ("Psychiatry and Philosophy"), excerpts of which have been used in the national high school exam philosophy (VWO 2014). Her primary research is dedicated to water ethics and distributive questions in the governance of risks and hazards. In 2013, she received a prestigious Veni-grant for outstanding researchers from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). She was shortlisted for the engineer of the year award 2014 from the Dutch professional engineering organization (KIVINIRIA) for her work on the interface of ethics and engineering. As of January 1, 2014, Neelke is Editor-in-Chief of Techn Research in Philosophy and Technology "(Journal of the Society for Philosophy and Technology"). Prior to joining the Philosophy Department of the TU Delft, Neelke was affiliated to the water research institution WL - Delft Hydraulic (now Deltares) and the Centre for Ethics of the Radboud University Nijmegen. Paul van Tongeren studied theology and philosophy in Utrecht and Leuven. He got his PhD from Leuven with a dissertation on the morality of Nietzsche's critique of morals. Since 1993 he is a full professor of moral philosophy and ethical theory in the department of philosophy of Radboud University in Nijmegen. Since 2002 he is also an extraordinary professor of ethics at the Institute of Philosophy in Leuven. His research is mainly on Nietzsche, on hermeneutics and on (the history of) moral philosophy.