Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Apologies as a Source of Moral Meaning in Modernity
- Part One Apologies from Individuals
- 1 The Meanings of Apologies
- 2 Elements of the Categorical Apology
- 3 Apologies and Gender
- 4 Apologies in Diverse Religious and Cultural Traditions
- 5 Unusual Cases: Apologizing to Animals, Infants, Machines, the Deceased, and Yourself
- 6 The Relationship between Apologies and Forgiveness
- 7 Varieties of Apologies
- Part Two Collective Apologies
- Conclusion: Previewing the Meanings of Apologies in Law
- Notes
- Index
7 - Varieties of Apologies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Apologies as a Source of Moral Meaning in Modernity
- Part One Apologies from Individuals
- 1 The Meanings of Apologies
- 2 Elements of the Categorical Apology
- 3 Apologies and Gender
- 4 Apologies in Diverse Religious and Cultural Traditions
- 5 Unusual Cases: Apologizing to Animals, Infants, Machines, the Deceased, and Yourself
- 6 The Relationship between Apologies and Forgiveness
- 7 Varieties of Apologies
- Part Two Collective Apologies
- Conclusion: Previewing the Meanings of Apologies in Law
- Notes
- Index
Summary
As the preceding discussions suggest, apologies can seem like confounding social exchanges. The considerable variability of apologies across time and cultures can further complicate matters. As I understand apologies, we can think of them as presenting a loose constellation of interrelated meanings. Having isolated and scrutinized the prominent stars in this constellation, we may find it useful to reconfigure them into a more intelligible horizon of meaning. I now suggest grouping a few different arrangements of apologetic meanings into more easily identifiable varieties. If I have been deconstructing the meanings of apologies, we might think of what follows as my attempt at a bit of reconstruction.
On my account, apologies present a potentially infinite variety of particular meanings. Classifying each variation would not be possible. Instead, I name a few of the more commonly occurring varieties in the hope of synthesizing some of the considerations previously discussed into a more manageable nomenclature. I hope that these terms will prove helpful and this convenience warrants the simplifications required.
The Categorical Apology
We can begin with the Categorical Apology, which I consider the most robust, painstaking, and formal of the varieties. We can understand a categorical apology as conveying certain kinds of prescriptively stipulated meanings.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- I Was WrongThe Meanings of Apologies, pp. 140 - 152Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008