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Document Details : Title: Political Ontology Subtitle: The Politics of Regret, the Burden of Collective Guilt, and the Cohesiveness of the Political Community Author(s): UNTEA, Ionut Journal: Ethical Perspectives Volume: 28 Issue: 3 Date: 2021 Pages: 311-348 DOI: 10.2143/EP.28.3.3289824 Abstract : The present contribution brings Jeffrey Olick’s notion of ‘politics of regret’ into the context of social and political ontology and explores, from the perspective of social ontology, the challenging issue of the pairing of the ‘expressives’ (Searle) involved in official discourses of apology with the sincerity of the speakers. I contrast a politics of mere regret, implemented mainly through official signs of commemoration and apology, with a more participatory politics of guilt-enlightened regret, which advances toward a transformed conception of collective glory that values the task of making visible even the demands of the voiceless. This becomes possible once the contemporary focus on the formulation of apologies shifts from their grammar and from the question of the authorities entitled to formulate them to a covenantal perspective meant to reconcile, through its emphasis on listening and con-versation, calls for justice and calls for societal healing. |
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