Hegel & Tragedy
If you’ve ever wondered what Hegelian Tragedy is, look no further:
“The tragedy in the realm of the ethical is to fall between the spell of two equal moral imperatives; thus the subject is constrained by the inextricable fate of failure no matter which he might choose.”
So I paraphrase this–discuss in comments, please.
This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 9:39 pm and is tagged with moral imperatives, hegelian, hegel, tragedy, fate, failure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.
on September 23rd, 2006 at 11:15 pm
And is his resolution a transcendent synthesis?
on July 5th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
“The tragedy in the realm of the ethical is to fall between the spell of two equal moral imperatives; thus the subject is constrained by the inextricable fate of failure no matter which he might choose.”
Unless a creative synthesis can be arrived at that circumvents the prospective tragedy on either or both ends of the apparent paradox/ impasse.
david gordon bain, author of dgb philosophy
on August 11th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Step outside the realm of the ethical — or at least partly — and you have sufficient room for an even greater human tragedy — whether you choose to call it an ancient Greek tragedy as expounded on later by Nietzsche with a strong Hegelian influence or you choose to believe that these are all simply different archetype examples of what is an inherent division or contradiction in the human psyche — specifically the ethical vs. the unethical, the moral vs. immoral, the narcissistic vs. the anti-narcissistic…
Here the moral imperative — or shall I say dilemma — is simply this: to transgress or not to transgress; to be selfish or to restrain myself on the grounds that my behavior could either hurt somebody else, particularly someone I care deeply about, and/or in the end, it could hurt me more than the simple adventure into unbridled pleasure is worth…
To finish with a Shakespearean flourish — that is the question.
There is no template answer.
As Kierkegaard woud say: either/or.
It’s your life, your decision, your accountability — both to yourself and others. Self-assertiveness, passion, and compassion for others are all important. Choose.
– david gordon bain, Aug. 11th, 2008.