MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM

The writer is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. She is author, among others, of ‘Political Emotions’.

November 21, 2018 8:30:25 am

“How can we bring empathy and forgiveness into the conversation on terror?” I can’t begin to answer this urgently important question without first dissecting it. Dissection will help us see that empathy, while often valuable, is morally slippery. Forgiveness, too, is a double-edged ethical instrument, sometimes helpful but all too often tainted by an unpleasant air of superiority. I’ll conclude that there are some other attitudes we need: Respect for humanity, generosity, and the courage to seek reconciliation.