Towards an Ethics of Testimony. Uses, Tasks and Scenarios of Testimony

The text initially refers to the revision of some postulates of the Philosophy of Otherness, in order to theoretically substantiate what can be considered as an ethics of testimony, from which one seeks to assume responsibility for the suffering of the other. Then some uses and tasks of the testimony are addressed, trying to analyze how the fact of testifying goes in correlation with different scenarios in which the listening and the reflection on the testified can vary. Finally, with the purpose of problematizing the usefulness and the scope of the testimony, as well as the importance of the receptivity and the function of re-signification that operates in it, one uses the field work carried out in the investigation "The Moral Evil and the Forgiveness as a Possible Ethical Response to the Damage" in which it is used as a methodological tool the testimonial reworking of several women who have suffered different damages in the context of the Colombian armed conflict, postulating as a conclusion the importance that the testimony can reach a strategic use: as a form of positioning, as a resource and means that people have to access the political scene and get the social recognition of the damage suffered.