After Injuryexplores the practices of forgiveness, resentment, and apology in three key moments when they were undergoing a dramatic change. The three moments are early Christian history (for forgiveness), the shift from British eighteenth-century to Continental nineteenth-century philosophers (for resentment), and the moment in the 1950s postwar world in which British ordinary language philosophers and American sociologists of everyday life theorized what it means to express or perform an apology. The debates that arose in those key moments have largely defined our contemporary study of these practices.
Introduction
Section One: Forgiveness Chapter One: Chapter Two: The Banality of Forgiveness Chapter Three: Forgiving Retribution
Section Two: Resentment Chapter Four: Resentment: The Wound of Philoctetes Chapter Five: The British Moralist Tradition: Conscience Chapter Six: The Continental Cultural Tradition: Collective
Section Three: Apology Chapter Seven: Apology: The Unforgiven Lives of Others Chapter Eight: Private Apologies Chapter Nine: Public Apologies
Conclusion Afterword: The Arts of Empathy Notes
Ashraf H. A. Rushdyis the Benjamin Waite Professor at Wesleyan University.