Forgiveness is not the first word that comes to mind when thinking about the holocaust. But, the three simple words—I forgive you—bestowed by holocaust twin experiment survivor Eva Mozes Kors is, in fact, an appropriate response to her offenders. Her forgiveness engages with a set of profound questions that occupied countless philosophers and, despite disagreement from other survivors, is justified by a model proposed by philosopher David Novitz.
In the summer of 1944, Eva’s family arrived at Auschwitz, one of the Nazi-run concentration camps. She recalls, “people [being] selected to live or die; people crying, pushing, shoving.” The chaotic scene stunned the ten-year-old. When Eva turned to her parents and siblings for solace, they weren’t …show more content…
As Novitz identifies, our ability to empathize with others is essential to forgiveness. He characterizes empathy as an exclusively nurtured trait, calling upon “wars and tribal conflicts…[that] constitute our common history.” This notion projects an individual’s problem into a societal one. While Novitz gets many things correct, I disagree with him here. In neuroscience research, empathy has been shown to emerge in infants, such as crying in response to hearing another infant cry. There is also increasingly more research showing that empathy is an innate human trait, like one’s eye color, which is determined genetically and arises at a very young age. After all, to have “tribal conflict,” we need to first have a tribe.
Being born naturally more empathic does not mean one will be more empathic—nurture does play a role. Novitz argues that empathy undermines one’s sense of self and claims that “a culture that elevates…self-respect will be short on empathy and compassion.” This is a direct jab at our current societal standard and calls for a reflection of whether we should continue to allow such a culture to prevail—a debate for another day. The problem here is a false belief that self-respect and empathy are mutually exclusive. In fact, I would argue a high self-respect is necessary for
In the summer of 1944, Eva’s family arrived at Auschwitz, one of the Nazi-run concentration camps. She recalls, “people [being] selected to live or die; people crying, pushing, shoving.” The chaotic scene stunned the ten-year-old. When Eva turned to her parents and siblings for solace, they weren’t …show more content…
As Novitz identifies, our ability to empathize with others is essential to forgiveness. He characterizes empathy as an exclusively nurtured trait, calling upon “wars and tribal conflicts…[that] constitute our common history.” This notion projects an individual’s problem into a societal one. While Novitz gets many things correct, I disagree with him here. In neuroscience research, empathy has been shown to emerge in infants, such as crying in response to hearing another infant cry. There is also increasingly more research showing that empathy is an innate human trait, like one’s eye color, which is determined genetically and arises at a very young age. After all, to have “tribal conflict,” we need to first have a tribe.
Being born naturally more empathic does not mean one will be more empathic—nurture does play a role. Novitz argues that empathy undermines one’s sense of self and claims that “a culture that elevates…self-respect will be short on empathy and compassion.” This is a direct jab at our current societal standard and calls for a reflection of whether we should continue to allow such a culture to prevail—a debate for another day. The problem here is a false belief that self-respect and empathy are mutually exclusive. In fact, I would argue a high self-respect is necessary for