Moral Repair: Reconstructing Moral Relations after Wrongdoing

by Margaret Urban Walker

Moral Repair examines the ethics and moral psychology of responses to wrongdoing. Explaining the emotional bonds and normative expectations that keep human beings responsive to moral standards and responsible to each other, Margaret Urban Walker uses realistic examples of both personal betrayal and political violence to analyze how moral bonds are damaged by serious wrongs and what must be done to repair the damage. Focusing on victims of wrong, their right to validation, and their sense of justice, Walker presents a unified and detailed philosophical account of hope, trust, resentment, forgiveness, and making amends - the emotions and practices that sustain moral relations. Moral Repair joins a multidisciplinary literature concerned with transitional and restorative justice, reparations, and restoring individual dignity and mutual trust in the wake of serious wrongs.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[catie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Walker is interested in building moral communities where wrong doing to others is not allowed, is properly addressed when happens, and is an important experience for the perpetrators and victims of a moral wrongdoing of some kind be a part of together, healing together, etc. very insightful and interesting book to those who want and need justice. no justice. no peace.

[cait · Rating 4 out of 5]

without moral repair, we do not have the capacity to create moral relationships among people. without moral relationships, we cannot stop harm and wrong and do not even know how to repair hope and trust, begin to forgive, or make amends. profound text full of thoughtful insight on righting wrongs

[Vytautas Malesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughtful analysis of trust, hope, resentment (etc.) and their place in public and personal relationships with plenty of good examples and compelling interrogations of same. Sometimes takes a while to get to (or come back around to) a point, but then again the texts refusal to essentialize is also something of a strength. An excellent companion piece to Hannah Arendt's -The Human Condition-. I also read this alongside Trudy Govier's -Forgiveness and Revenge- and found that all three texts complemented one another nicely in creating a richer understanding of how human beings react to, and overcome, transgression.