Being responsible for the past : reparative responses to historic injustice / Susan A. Stark

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stark, Susan A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reparations for historical injustices.

Responsibility.

Restorative justice.

Transitional justice.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026

Summary:

"Many think that there is nothing to be done now to address past wrongs. The intergenerational harm argument connects ongoing harms with past wrongs, but this argument faces problems: it relies on empirical claims connecting wrongs of the past with harms in the present, claims with which not everyone agrees, and since the wrongdoers existed in the past, it is difficult to say who owes reparations today. In this book, Susan Stark discusses cases of wrongs and injustices - focusing on genocides, the transatlantic slave trade, and social discrimination and oppression of various kinds -- and explores the complex ethical problem of how past wrongs and historic injustices can be partially repaired in the present, and of who is morally required to repair them. She argues for a new way of thinking about reparations, and shows that it is possible to make some repair in the present for wrongs done by others in the past"-- Cambridge Core

Contents:

The problem

Speaking about historical injustices : some preliminaries

What is it to make reparations?

To whom are reparations owed? Some parameters

Who owes reparations? Being morally responsible for actions outside our core agency

Collective moral responsibility : European-descended people as a trans-temporal collective

Moral luck, accounting, and moral responsibility without blame

The possibility of anger without blame

Making reparations : missteps and first steps

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge Core, viewed August 4, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Stark, Susan A. Being responsible for the past

ISBN:

9781009375535

1009375539

OCLC:

1573375618

Publisher Number:

CIPO000404138

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license