The Philosophy of Apology

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.Apologies are an important part of our moral, social, and political practices. An apology can weaken the anger of someone who has been wronged and give them a reason to forgive. An apology can mend relationships and can even help countries reconcile after conflict. But how do apologies achieve this? In The Philosophy of Apology, a range of philosophers consider this fundamental question, necessary to understanding what an apology is, what it does, and what separates a 'good' apology from a 'bad' one. Key concepts explored in this volume include: what are apologies? When are they appropriate to give? And when should apologies be accepted? Detailed questions include: are apologies speech acts? Are they processes? Do they involve accepting blame? Do they involve dissociating oneself from an earlier act? Are political apologies a distinct phenomenon from interpersonal apologies? Through thorough exploration of a vast range of ideas, contributors to The Philosophy of Apology offer fresh perspectives on what an apology really is, setting the stage for future work.