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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that If forgiveness and excuse both achieve the same moral psychological endpoint—the relinquishment of resentment—their conceptual distinctness reduces to a difference of degree, not kind.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Forgiveness requires the wronged party to voluntarily release justified resentment; excusing requires recognizing the wrongdoer lacked moral responsibility. These are categorically different.
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    • 2.Excuse eliminates the grounds for resentment retroactively; forgiveness acknowledges grounds exist but chooses to overcome them. The moral positions are distinct in kind.
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    • 3.Identical endpoints can result from fundamentally different processes. Psychology recognizes distinctions between pathways as conceptually significant even when outcomes match.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Moral psychology focuses on mental states, not their causal pathways. If forgiveness and excuse both eliminate resentment, they're functionally identical morally.
      ?

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    • 2.The conceptual distinction between forgiveness and excuse relies on narratives about causation and responsibility, not on observable psychological differences.
      ?

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    • 3.Degree-based distinctions (how much resentment remains) are ultimately what matter ethically; kind-based distinctions lack moral relevance if endpoints coincide.
      ?

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