Forgiveness and Perfection

TL;DRAbstract

Maimonides and Aquinas employ extensive resources from Aristotle in their moral thought. Like Aristotle, they present perfectionist accounts of human nature and consider the virtues to be fundamental to moral life. They too regard intellectual activity as central to human perfection. And yet there are fundamental differences between Aristotle, on the one hand, and Maimonides and Aquinas on the other, and additional important differences between Maimonides and Aquinas. The differences made by Jewish and Christian theistic commitments show that neither Maimonides nor Aquinas should be described as “basically Aristotelian, with some religiously based modifications.” The present discussion brings into relief some differences between their views and Aristotle’s, with the aim of explicating their understandings of the nature, significance, and role of forgiveness. Topically, the discussion could, of course, be extended to include the Islamic tradition as well, but here our attention is confi

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