That Supposed Idea of Self-forgiveness

Abstract

The paper analyses the phenomenon of self-forgiveness as it is comprehended in current ethics from the point of view of mutually defining tasks, which morality sets before a person, namely, orients him: first, on achievement and maintenance of consent, reconciliation, solidarity in relations between people; second, on aspiration for personal perfection. Two basic meanings of the idea of self-forgiveness are emphasized in different concepts. First, self-forgiveness is understood as self-recovery (self-rehabilitation) after a moral failings — harm to other person and thus to oneself in the form of loss of self-respect, dignity, etc. Second, self-forgiveness is understood as a necessary condition of interpersonal forgiveness. In this sense, it presupposes recognition as his own the act that caused harm to another person and taking responsibility for it, as well as repentance, self-examination aimed at revealing the features of character that led to the wrong act, efforts to correct them and improve oneself, care for the victim of the wrong act, compensation for the harm caused, etc. In other words, it turns out that behind the discussion of the idea of self-forgiveness hides the other phenomena (both moral and non-moral): self-improvement, self-acceptance, repentance, caring for the other, asking for forgiveness, etc., which only confuses ethical reasoning. Consideration of the idea of self-forgiveness in the perspective to the concept of morality has shown that if self-forgiveness is interpreted as justified and deserved liberation of oneself from the feeling of guilt for the consequences of one's transgressions, then it loses its moral importance and distorts the nature of forgiveness, as it orients the person to himself and not to another/other and cannot solve those specific tasks that are solved by forgiveness, namely restoration of consent and reconciliation in relations between people.