Since Bacon and Hobbes, the assumption that revenge and law are mutually exclusive is central to legal and political philosophy. This assumption, however, has not only led to a comprehensive moral delegitimization of revenge, but also fostered its theoretical obscuration. For contrary to modern self-understanding, vengeful affects and retributive emotions have not disappeared from our psychological, social, and cultural reality at all – they are just hushed up . That is why we want to open this discussion again. The international conference „Let’s Talk About Revenge! On Retributive Emotions, Justice and Moral Repair“ seeks to arrive at a more balanced understanding of revenge and retributive emotions that also considers their constructive potential in processes of conflict resolution and moral repair.

To the conference and event programm. 

Funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)