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Anger and forgiveness. Research seminar of Center for Consciousness Studies

16 August, 2024

Anger and forgiveness are generally considered to be natural emotional and moral reactions in response to the damaging actions of others. However, Nussbaum criticizes the appropriateness of such reactions.


The author defends the thesis of irrationality of anger, throughout the book demonstrating that it only destroys interpersonal, business and political relations, without contributing in any way to their improvement. Forgiveness is considered the opposite of anger, but Nussbaum shows that its positive role is often overestimated, and sometimes forgiveness even turns out to be no less morally destructive than anger. A more appropriate response to the damage caused, according to Nussbaum, is to adopt an attitude devoid of retributivist motives, aimed at improving relations with other people and building a more just and prosperous society. And although the adoption of such an attitude may seem less natural and require significant work on oneself, it is worth it, Nussbaum believes. We discuss how justified and realistic this project is at our seminar. Vadim Chaly presents the author's central ideas, and Leonid Kornilaev critically analyzes them.

The participants of the discussion: Artem Besedin, Anton Kuznetsov, Andrey Mertsalov, Vadim Vasilyev.