Publisher Description

This book argues that justice often governs apologies. Drawing on examples from literature, politics, and current events, Cohen presents a theory of apology as corrective leading accounts of apology say much about what apologies do and why they are important. They stop short of exploring whether and how justice governs apologies. Cohen argues that corrective justice may require apologies as offers of reparation. Individuals, corporations, and states may then have rights or duties regarding apology. Exercising rights to apology or fulfilling duties to provide them are ways of holding one another mutually accountable. By casting rights and duties of apology as justifiable to free and equal persons, the book advances conversations about how liberalism may respond to historic and Moral Repair will be of interest to scholars and advanced students in ethics, political philosophy, and social philosophy.

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Toward a Theory of Apology: Mapping Some Terrain of Corrective Justice2. Some Incomplete Accounts of Apologies3. Apology as Relationship Repair4. Relationships and Mutually Justifiable Demands5. Rights and Duties of Apology6. Apologies, Corrective Justice, and Relationship Repair: Some Puzzles7. Corporate Apologies8. Political Apologies9. Apologies for Historic Injustice

Review

"Andrew I. Cohen has made a significant advance in our understanding of the nature of apologies. He demonstrates, more clearly than anyone before, that apologies are grounded in the demands of justice. As such, he shows that liberal theories of justice have the resources to help address issues of historic injustice." – Andrew Valls, Oregon State University, USA

Review Quote

"Andrew I. Cohen has made a significant advance in our understanding of the nature of apologies. He demonstrates, more clearly than anyone before, that apologies are grounded in the demands of justice. As such, he shows that liberal theories of justice have the resources to help address issues of historic injustice." - Andrew Valls, Oregon State University, USA

Details