Forgiveness — a generous gift or social pressure disguised as a virtue?

You often hear that forgiveness is the key to healing and moving on — but is it always the right thing to do? This conversation explores how forgiveness is something far more complex than a simple act of letting go. Is it a generous moral gift, or a burden placed on those who've been wronged? What really happens when we forgive? And is sometimes withholding forgiveness the more honest response?

2025 Anderson Fellows Lecture — Forgiveness: Do We Really Need it? presented by the University of Sydney

Speakers

Lucy AllaisProfessor of Philosophy at both the University of the Witwatersrand and Johns Hopkins University

Luke RussellProfessor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney