Forgiveness and Its Similar Cases; Definition of Forgiveness Based on Negative and Positive Aspects

Forgiveness has been deemed to be one of the main virtues since the second half of the twentieth century onwards which has a close relation with the mistakable and fallible nature of human. Although there is consensus to some extent that forgiveness is meant with regard to ethical mistakes, due to extension of its dimensions and types, various viewpoints about whatness of forgiveness have been proposed. The common ground of these viewpoints is that forgiveness is known as the central point of ethical mistakes and there is an attempt to determine the boundary between forgiveness and the determined and undetermined similar concept of human action in ethics. Although these viewpoints have much in common regarding the negative aspect of definition of forgiveness, they try to be separate from each other in regard to the positive aspect and various types are proposed to define forgiveness and determine its nature. This paper attempts to provide a definition of forgiveness based on two negative and positive aspects.