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Retribution and reconciliation

Crocker, David A
June 4, 2015

Source: (2000) Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly 20 (Winter-Spring).

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission pursued wrongs done under apartheid by granting amnesty in exchange for truth. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chair of the commission, has defended this arrangement for both practical and moral reasons. Specifically, he has rejected what he calls the “Nuremberg paradigm.â€? In this article, David Crocker contends that, while practical reasons may carry significant weight in explaining the arrangement, the Archbishop’s moral reasoning cannot justify rejection of that paradigm. To make his case, Crocker examines vengeance, punishment, retribution, and reconciliation.

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