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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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

    It is not the case that The utterance 'I forgive you', understood as a declarative, makes it the case that one has been forgiven, thereby altering the operative norms governing the interaction between victim and wrongdoer.

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

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Forgiveness requires the overcoming of resentment, an internal psychological achievement that no verbal performance can simply constitute.
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    • 2.Austin's declaratives presuppose institutional roles and felicity conditions; forgiveness lacks the formal authority structure that makes such utterances binding.
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    • 3.One can sincerely utter 'I forgive you' while retaining full resentment, demonstrating the utterance and the forgiving act are distinct phenomena.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Bishop Butler and subsequent theorists ground forgiveness in the victim's actual attitudinal change toward the wrongdoer, not in a speech act.
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    • 2.If declaratives sufficed for forgiveness, a victim could forgive under coercion or insincerity, which most accounts rightly treat as morally void performances.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Declarative utterances have the effect of changing reality in various ways.
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    • 2.An appropriate authority can say 'I christen this ship' or 'I hereby find you guilty' and thereby make it so.
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    • 3.Much like one can declare a debt forgiven or a criminal pardoned, one can declare that one has been forgiven by sincerely saying something like 'I forgive you'.
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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.