Returning to the Source
Revisiting Arendtian Forgiveness in the Politics of Reconciliation
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Abstract
The idea of forgiveness is omnipresent in the transitional justice literature, yet this body of work, taken as a whole, is marked by conceptual, terminological and argumentative imprecision. Equivocation is common, glossing moral, theological, therapeutic and legal considerations, while arguments proceed from political, apolitical and even antipolitical premises. With forgiveness as a praxis linked to reconciliation processes in at least ten countries, concerns have grown over its negative implications for the relationship between the state and victims of state-authored injustices. Many of these debates reference Hannah Arendt. Drawing from a range of Arendt's published and unpublished work, this article challenges the academic claim that forgiveness has no place in the politics of reconciliation. Through this ‘returning to the source’, it presents a promising mode of thinking about political forgiveness in contemporary Settler-colonial states.
Contributor Notes
Sam Grey is the Director of University and Lifelong Learning at Six Nations Polytechnic and a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Victoria, where her doctoral research explores the roles of emotion and virtue in Indigenous-Settler (ir)reconciliation. She has published on gender and truth commissions, decolonisation and peacemaking, and Indigenous women's human rights, and is the editor of three books on Indigenous knowledge and rights-based advocacy. Sam's work is supported by the Fulbright Program, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Federation of University Women.