The Research Seminar Series in Philosophy invites you to a seminar with August Olsen, Lund University, "Apologies and Responsibility".
Abstract
Philosophers widely agree that apologising requires responsibility: one can only intelligibly apologise for what one is, in some way, responsible for. Nonetheless, the precise details of how this requirement should be understood remain underexamined. This paper aims to remedy this by proposing the following understanding of the Responsibility-Requirement: An apology for φ-ing implicates responsibility for φ-ing – an implicature which is non-cancellable – and the apology is felicitous only if the apologiser is perceived as responsible for φ-ing. This raises the question of what kind of responsibility is required. We reject the views that apologising requires culpable responsibility or agential responsibility by showing that merely causally responsible agents can sometimes felicitously apologise. We propose that apologisers bearing culpable, agential, and/or causal responsibility can meet the requirement. We then argue that the Responsibility-Requirement holds for all individual apologies, including apologies we offer for other people’s misdeeds. Finally, we discuss what the Responsibility-Requirement entails for the relationship between apologies and forgiveness, remorse, moral wrongdoing, and repeating what one is apologising for.
All interested are welcome to attend this seminar.
About the seminar series
This seminar is intended primarily for presentations of PhD work and other research in philosophy conducted at the Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies. Guest lectures sometimes take place in the seminar as well. The seminars are given in English and all interested are welcome to attend these events.
