You Did Nothing Wrong and I Forgive You: An Ethical Examination of Forgiving Hurt

Although forgiveness receives popular praise as a reconciliatory tool in some post-conflict contexts, contemporary peace

practitioners demonstrate a hesitancy to approach the topic given the "us v. them" nature of the victim/offender paradigm central to standard philosophical forgiveness accounts. To take seriously the hurt of the forgiver without alienating the forgiven, this project eschews wrongdoing as the primary and exclusive object of interpersonal

forgiveness. Instead, it tracks hurt as a basic object of forgiveness, not only enabling more compassionate post-conflict

practices, but also introducing the possibility of forgiving in cases of hurt without culpability, like heartbreaks, accidents, and natural evils.