Collectives Corroborating Factual Records

As with individual apologies, creating a record of the offense at issue is an important component of collective apologies. Tavuchis goes so far as to claim that the “principal function” of collective apologies “has little, if anything, to do with sorrow or sincerity but rather with putting things on the public record.” Tavuchis describes this recording function as “the ultimate source of [a collective apology's] power to remedy and conciliate,” and he believes that “to demand more of the form is to mistake its task and logic.” I explain why I find this a bit of an overstatement – even if the “things” that a collective apology “puts on the record” refer to something more like the entire performance of the apology rather than only the details of the incident – but I agree that we should not underestimate the importance of creating an official, public, or otherwise authoritative record of facts salient to the offense.

Collective apologies typically multiply the difficulties of establishing a factual record faced by individual apologies. When apologizing for the actions of a legion of warriors, a loosely organized mob, an intricate corporate bureaucracy, or a market in human slaves, cataloging the wrongdoings will seem like a daunting task. If we return to the example of my philosophy department apologizing for what I described earlier as “failure to address concerns about gender equality,” notice the importance of including more information on the record than this vague description offers.