Abstract
In the last few decades, numerous liberal democratic states have offered public apologies for past violations of human rights1. A gesture formerly associated with weakness is nowadays perceived as a marker of moral strength.2 Crimes such as enslavement, displacement, violation of treaties, war crimes, ethnic discrimination, cultural disruption and many other types of human rights abuses have led to public expressions of regret.3 Whereas politicians have traditionally been unwilling, or at least hesitant, to offer apologies for historical injustices at the hands of the state, we are currently witnessing a veritable wave of apologies around the world. Academic research has rapidly picked up on these changes, so much so that the nature of state apologies has become a subject of inquiry for a number of key disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, including philosophy, political science, theology, history and sociology.4
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
In this introduction, we draw heavily on two recently published articles. For a full account of how we conceive of political apologies see: Mihaela Mihai, ‘When the State Says “Sorry”: State Apologies as Exemplary Political Judgments’, Journal of Political Philosophy 21, no. 2 (2013): 200–220 and
Mathias Thaler, ‘Just Pretending: Political Apologies for Historical Injustice and Vice’s Tribute to Virtue’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 15, no. 3 (2012): 259–278.
Nicolaus Mills, ‘The New Culture of Apology’, Dissent 48, no. 4 (2001): 113–116;
Mark Gibney et al. eds., The Age of Apology: Facing up to the Past, Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).
Stanley L. Engerman, ‘Apologies, Regrets, and Reparations’, European Review 17, no. 3–4 (2009): 593–610.
Trudy Govier, ‘Forgiveness and the Unforgivable’, American Philosophical Quarterly 36, no. 1 (1999): 59–75;
Trudy Govier, Taking Wrongs Seriously: Acknowledgement, Reconciliation, and the Politics of Sustainable Peace (Amherst, N.Y: Humanity Books, 2006); Gibney et al., The Age of Apology;
Ari Kohen, ‘The Personal and the Political: Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Restorative Justice’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 12, no. 3 (2009): 399–423.
Nicholas Tavuchis, Mea Culpa: A Sociology of Apology and Reconciliation (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991);
Charles L. Griswold, Forgiveness: A Philosophical Exploration (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Barbara L. Solow, ‘Introduction’, in Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System, ed. Barbara L. Solow (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 1–20;
Marika Sherwood, After Abolition: Britain and the Slave Trade Since 1807 (London/New York: I.B. Tauris, 2007), 8.
Nick Smith, I Was Wrong: The Meanings of Apologies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 155.
Pascal Bruckner, The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).
Gorman Beauchamp, ‘Apologies All Around’, The American Scholar 76, no. 4 (2007): 87;
Lee Taft, ‘Apology Subverted: The Commodification of Apology’, The Yale Law Journal 109, no. 5 (2000): 1135.
Alice MacLachlan, ‘The State of “Sorry”: Official Apologies and Their Absence’, Journal of Human Rights 9, no. 3 (2010): 347.
Gillian Cowlishaw, ‘A Multiplicity of Meanings: An Ethnographic Reflection on Kevin Rudd’s Apology on Behalf of the Nation, to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples in January 2008’, Critique of Anthropology 29, no. 3 (2009): 358.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Mihaela Mihai and Mathias Thaler
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mihai, M., Thaler, M. (2014). Introduction. In: Mihai, M., Thaler, M. (eds) On the Uses and Abuses of Political Apologies. Rhetoric, Politics and Society Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137343727_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137343727_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-46582-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-34372-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political Science CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)