Victims' Stories and the Advancement of Human Rights
Diana Tietjens Meyers
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Two Victim Paradigms and the Problem of "Impure " Victims
1. Two Victim Paradigms
A. The Pathetic Victim Paradigm
B. The Heroic Victim Paradigm
2. Controversial - "Impure " - Victims
A. Trafficked Sex Workers
B. Death Row Inmates
3. Parameters of Innocence
A. Getting Real about Innocence
B. The Victim Paradigms Revisited
C. Reconceiving the Innocence of Victims
4. Reclaiming Victim Discourse
Chapter 2: Narrative Structures, Narratives of Abuse, And Human Rights
1. The Amsterdam/Bruner Account of Narrative
2. Narrative Regimentation, Social Exclusion, and Truth Forfeiture
3. Hayden White's Account of Narrative and Closure
4. Spelman's Account of Normativity in a Victim's Story
5. Strejilevich's Skepticism about Normativity in Victims' Stories
6. Varieties of Moral Closure
7. Moral Closure without Moral Resolution
Chapter 3: Learning from Victims' Stories: The Promise and Problems of Emotional Understanding
1. Narrative Artifice: Arbitrary and Non-Rational?
2. Affective Intelligence and Moral Understanding
3. Scenes from a Child Soldier's Story
4. Imaginative Resistance to a Child Soldier's Story
5. Emotionally Understanding a Child Soldier's Story
6. Humanitarianism, Human Rights, and Affective Understanding
Chapter 4: Empathy and the Meanings of Human Rights in Human Lives
1. Peter Goldie's Critique of Empathy
2. A Conception of Empathy for Moral Philosophy
3. Why Empathy Is (Isn't) a Moral Power
A. Empathy and Altruistic Action
B. Empathy and Moral Understanding
4. Empathy, Embodiment, and Suffering
5. A Woman in Berlin Eight Weeks in the Conquered City
6. Empathy, Victims' Stories, and Human Rights
Chapter 5: The Ethics and Politics of Putting Victims' Stories to Work
1. The Problem of Victim Derogation and Blaming
2. The Ethics of Using Victims' Stories to Promote Human Rights
A. Aid and Research Projects
B. Justice Projects
3. Ethical Politics: Civil Society and Advancing Human Rights
A. Ethical Practices Within Human Rights Groups
B. Ethical Relations Among Human Rights NGOs
4. Concluding Reflections
References
Index
