Who may forgive? Most philosophical accounts assume that only the victim of a wrongdoing has the standing to forgive. In many cases, this answer to the question is asserted without even an attempt at offering a supporting argument. However, when reasons are offered, they tend to take one of four forms: the debt-cancelling argument, the emotion-based argument, the relation-based argument, or the normative difference argument. In this chapter, these four arguments are shown to be inadequate. In addition, a case is made for expanding the class of those with the standing to forgive to include...

Who may forgive? Most philosophical accounts assume that only the victim of a wrongdoing has the standing to forgive. In many cases, this answer to the question is asserted without even an attempt at offering a supporting argument. However, when reasons are offered, they tend to take one of four forms: the debt-cancelling argument, the emotion-based argument, the relation-based argument, or the normative difference argument. In this chapter, these four arguments are shown to be inadequate. In addition, a case is made for expanding the class of those with the standing to forgive to include second and third parties.