Forgiveness as a Virtue of Universal Love

Abstract

This chapter is about the relation between universal love and a virtue of forgiveness, which Robert Roberts calls the virtue of forgivingness. I argue that forgivingness is a virtue of universal love, so to understand that virtue, one needs to analyze the problematic notion of universal love. This analysis, in turn, requires an understanding of love itself as an emotion directed at particular agents as opposed to (for example) humankind as such. This creates apparent difficulties for universal love. Once these difficulties are resolved, we have a better understanding of problems with forgivingness as a virtue. In particular, I shall argue that love, including universal love, is a bond-based rather than a value-based emotion, and that forgivingness as a virtue of universal love does not require that we should forgive each and every person who has wronged us.