How Does Lynn Hunt Create A Sense Of Empathy?

This article analyzes the way Austen portrays women in her novels. Kruger mentions that Jane Austen’s work is often deprived by the

In his Wall Street Journal essay, “Violence Vanquished,” Steven Pinker claims that contrary to perceived notions of increasing violence and turbulence in the world, "brutality is declining and empathy is on the rise.” Pinker establishes this argument through numeric comparisons of death tolls, genocides and other aggressive perpetrations in modern society with those in prehistoric times. He credits the fall in these quantifications of “violence” to the processes of pacification, civilization, humanitarian revolution, Long Peace, New Peace and the rights revolution that have together created an environment conducive to “our better angels.”

As per the 1948 Universal announcement of human rights, all individuals regardless of their background are all born equal before the law. This declaration made by the powerful nations and signed by all nations strong and weak that belong to the United Nations reflects the thoughts of many earlier philosophers to include the 16th & 17th Century Martin Luther, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke. However, each philosopher -based on their times and experiences gave a different value to how men use their freedom and equality in presence of the other in a society, and in relation to political authority. As determinant of his freedom to act and think, the three writings focused on the will of man, the promise that shapes the social contract, and the

Human rights were an achievement that we humans have been working for years. Therefore it came to effect for at least some of us around the world in the form of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which is a declaration of 30 human rights that the United Nation adopted in December 10 of 1948. However, we face challenges along the way that oppose this belief of human rights. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, a novel called Night which is about a man’s experience of the Holocaust (written by Elie Wiesel who actually experienced the event) provide events that violated the human rights of two, three, and five.

Literature changed drastically between the nineteenth-century and twentieth and twenty-first century. Idealistic views that British writers once held, turned into skepticism as Great Britain enter war and inequalities grew greater. The writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries wrote realistically what was happening in the world. The Moment before the Gun Went Off by Nadine Gordimer and “The Day They Burned the Books” by Jean Rhys are both stories that show the shattering of Idealism in twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Prior to World War II, visions of human rights were gradually increasing, however the world was not an amiable home for minorities and impoverished people. Documents that

Lynn Hunt’s book, Inventing Human Rights, is a breakdown of the development of human rights. According to Hunt, individual experiences of empathy were created, in the progression of the eighteenth century and empathy made it possible for the invention of human rights. In her book, Hunt, discusses many different ideas of empathy. In the introduction, Hunt asks how do the men, live in societies that are built on slavery, ever come to imagine everyone as equals? The method that permitted men to see others who were different from them as equals was empathy. Empathy can and has the ability to breakdown the biggest prejudices. There were many ways that empathy spread throughout society. The main way that empathy spread throughout the society is through

During barbaric times such as the Middle Ages, one had very little interaction with people different from themselves. Because of this, when interacting with people different than oneself, one sees others as inferior and easy to dispose of. This resulting in the death penalty for minor crimes such as stealing or disapproving of the king. By the expansion of one’s circle of empathy in modern society, people will not react in violent ways, but will be compassionate and caring to other

As most people would agree, the 20th century contained some of the bloodiest and most gruesome events ever recorded in history. Why do words such as Hiroshima, Rwanda, The Final Solution, A Great Leap Forward, The Great Purge and so many more spark such vivid images of blood, torture and murder in our minds? And despite those horrific images, what is it that causes us humans time and time again to commit such crimes against humanity? Those are the kinds of questions Jonathan Glover, a critically acclaimed ethics philosopher, tries to answer in the book he had spent over ten years writing, Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century. Through Humanity Glover tries to answer those questions in a way which will give a solution as how we can

Having human rights in place imposes certain obligations on the government and justifies the complaints of those whose rights and freedoms have not been respected. Everyone is entitled to human rights regardless of their nationality, gender, race, religion, or political opinion. The failure to recognize these rights results in conflict and a vicious cycle of violence as more human rights are violated. To avoid such clashes, human rights have become a fundamental part of global law and policy. However, they have not always been that way. Catastrophic events in history that claimed thousands of lives ran their vicious course before it was recognized that there had to be human rights established. The most famous example of genocide is the Holocaust, which killed around six million Jews. After the Holocaust, the United Nations recognized that there had to be human rights put into place. Two human rights from the United Nations’ “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” that were perversely violated during the Holocaust are Article 5 (the protection against inhumane treatment or punishment) and Article 25 (the right to a standard of living.) Light is shed upon the exploitation of human rights during the Holocaust in both Night by Elie Wiesel and The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal. The Holocaust was a devastating event that opened our eyes to just how cruel humans can be, and why human rights must be enforced and protected.

Two of most interesting ages in the English literature are the Enlightenment and the Romantic era. They are interesting because the Romantic era followed the Enlightenment era and criticized it.

Formed in Renaissance, bourgeois humanitarianism, aiming to serve as a powerful weapon to fight against feudalism, gained the real essence of ancient Greek humanitarianism. It mainly acclaimed the idea that man should break through the restraint of religious doctrines so that they can have rights to pursue individual freedom and happiness. During the Enlightenment movement, many philosophers held the though that law should take the pursuit of one’s interest under control, which considered man as natural person free from any class. The concept sounded wonderful but truly

One of the main reasons why human rights have been put in place is to protect the public life and public space of every individual being. One fundamental characteristic of human rights is that they are equal rights; they are aimed at providing protection to every person in an equal way. These rights have been entrenched through laws that are passed by states and international conventions. Human rights laws have evolved over time, and have been shaped by several factors, including philosophical theories in the past. This paper looks at the theories of two philosophers, Emmanuel Kant and John Stuart Mills, and how their teachings can be used to explain the sources of human rights. Kant’s moral philosophy is very direct in its

The doctrine of human rights were created to protect every single human regardless of race, gender, sex, nationality, sexual orientation and other differences. It is based on human dignity and the belief that no one has the right to take this away from another human being. The doctrine states that every ‘man’ has inalienable rights of equality, but is this true? Are human rights universal? Whether human rights are universal has been debated for decades. There have been individuals and even countries that oppose the idea that human rights are for everybody. This argument shall be investigated in this essay, by: exploring definitions and history on human rights, debating on whether it is universal while providing examples and background

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” These opening words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights express a concept of man which underpins the framework of human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration and the two international covenants of Human Rights. Western political traditions is a concept that it derives from, is in harmony with moral and social teachings to be found in many other traditions and patterns of belief.