Colloquium Lecture: Paulina Sliwa (University of Vienna), "An Anatomy of Apology"

Apologies are a central feature of our moral lives. When we have been wronged, we often hope for nothing more than an apology. And when we are the ones to have wronged someone, we often feel compelled to apologise.

Insofar as moral philosophy has taken up the practice of apology, the focus has been on apologies for grave wrongdoing or historical injustice. In contrast, my topic here are the everyday apologies we give and receive in our moral practice, which include not just grave wrongs but small missteps and minor tragedies. We say sorry for a forgotten birthday, late arrivals, a rash comment, an unintentional head bump.

What do we want from an account of apologies? It should tell us how apologies work. It should identify what is distinctive about the speech act of apologies. Equally importantly, it should also tell us something about the standards governing apologies. Finally, it should situate our practice of apologising within the wider practice of holding each other morally responsible and draw out its relationship to blaming, making excuses and justifying ourselves, taking responsibility, and forgiving.

My aim is to put forward the moral footprint account of apologies. Wrongdoing changes the moral landscape in a characteristic way. It creates reparative rights and duties. Apologies, I suggest, is to communicate our acceptance of the moral footprint of the wrong we have done to someone. In this way, apologising is a way – indeed the paradigm way – of taking responsibility for one's wrongdoing.