What do Socrates, Plato and Aristotle have to say about forgiveness?
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M$5 Answers
An article on Plato's perspectives:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3228153
And a book excerpt (you have to know that sungnome in Greek can mean forgiveness or pardon in English to understand the excerpt):
http://books.google.com/books?id=KOAoQiRFo70C&pg=PA199&lpg=PA199&dq=sungnome+Plato&source=bl&ots=vQUK0mZHjT&sig=SI2am42TKft3qxNKxfJ30cCO0RI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result
And here is a longer discussion of Aristotle's views on how forgiveness fits into his ideas of justice:
http://www.texttribe.com/routledge/J/Justice,%20equity%20and%20law.html
As for Socrates: given what we know about Socrates' influence on Plato as a friend and teacher, it's hard to do much better than assuming it's about the same as Plato's. It's very difficult to differentiate between what Plato said and what Socrates said; Socrates didn't publish any books, and many quotes that are attributed to Socrates are actually fictionalized accounts of Socrates' dialogues that Plato wrote. I'm not saying that Socrates didn't have great things to say, obviously, just that nobody can really say how their attitudes differed. (Authors like Xenophon also wrote about Socrates, but these portrayals are not usually considered accurate representations of his philosophies).
A quick note: Forgiveness in the Judeo-Christian sense of the term would have been quite foreign to these philosophers. Furthermore, for the non-philosophical types of this time period (who might be called superstitious by our standards), it was thought that committing a horrible misdeed would bring about divine punishment to the perpertrator and also OTHERS around him/her, sometimes bringing plague or other problems to the entire city (See Book I of the Iliad, the Oresteia, or Oedipus Rex). So forgiving someone would mean that you might be punished along with that person. My point is: even though Plato and Aristotle might not seem especially 'forgiving' by modern standards, their philosophies were a big departure from these even older ways of thinking.
Studied Greek in college. Read too many books on obscure topics.
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Back to the question, it is actually beyond me or a non-philosopher. However, it does appear that these three and other ancient Greeks did not consider forgiveness to be a virtue. Griswold says "It is surprising and illuminating that forgiveness is not seen as a virtue by the ancient Greek philosophers." About as far as they seem to have gone is to consider some circumstances as being possibly an excuse. for bad behavior. They apparently did not have the concept that there is something good about forgiving a wrong. Where the concept that it is good to forgive a wrong came from is another question, but I will hazard a guess that it is primarily a Christian notion, and one that is honored mostly in the breach. The short answer to the question is that the three philosophers did not say much about forgiveness and did not consider it a virtue.
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M$http://conference2005.swapusa.org/papers/maclachlan/node2.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=-KK4nCZyJZ4C&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=%2Bforgiveness+%2Bphilosophy+%2Bplato&source=web&ots=cs85E7lX7g&sig=SjgOcr4InD8icNZons99w9lyPu8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result
Okay, since I provided you with a couple of sources to your answer, can I just add a great story about forgiveness? It's from my article on How to Get Revenge
One of the best examples of forgiveness occurred in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Nickel Mines is the location of brutal school shooting on October 2, 2006, that killed five children. After the shooting, members of the Amish community visited the gunman's widow and brought food and flowers. Some, including parents that had lost children in the shooting, attended the gunman's funeral. When money began pouring in to the Amish, they used part of this money to set up a fund for the gunman's family. According to a father who lost his daughter, "Forgiveness means giving up the right to revenge."
That whole idea amazed me and really made me question myself.
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M$http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=13334
and another [see the pdf download excerpt]
http://www.cup.es/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521703512&ss=exc
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M$
I've been tryin' to get down
to the heart of the matter
But my will gets weak
and my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it's about...forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if, even if you don't love me anymore
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M$
