Moral Damage/Moral Repair

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor

Moral repair is the process of moving from the situation of loss and damage to a situation where some degree of stability in moral relations is gained...[It] is the task of restoring or stabilizing – and in some cases creating – the basic elements that sustain human beings in recognizably moral relationship. ~ Margaret Walker, Moral Repair (6, 23) “Moral repair” is a crucial, ongoing dimension of moral life. We are vulnerable to many kinds of moral harm, including forms of cruelty, bigotry, exclusion, betrayal, disrespect, indifference, and neglect. Moral harm can “damage” us, impairing our ability to function and to flourish. Sometimes moral damage is the result of deliberate individual action, sometimes of entrenched practices, cultural ideologies and assumptions, and institutional arrangements that are unjust or otherwise morally problematic. This course will explore various forms of moral harm and the “damage” they do – the challenges, threats, violations, and failures to which we are susceptible, as offenders, as victims, as bystanders, and as participants in broader social systems and cultures. We will seek to understand how we can (and do) respond reparatively, thus sustaining or, in many cases, “creating,” conditions in which morality can gain traction and stability in our shared life.