The Passion of Infinity: Kierkegaard, Aristotle and the Rebirth of Tragedy

Daniel Greenspan

Published by De Gruyter 2008

The Passion of Infinity

Kierkegaard, Aristotle and the Rebirth of Tragedy

Daniel Greenspan

Volume 19 in the series Kierkegaard Studies. Monograph Series

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110211177

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Passion of Infinity generates a historical narrative surrounding the concept of the irrational as a threat which rational culture has made a series of attempts to understand and relieve. It begins with a reading of Sophocles' Oedipus as the paradigmatic figure of a reason that, having transgressed its mortal limit, becomes catastrophically reversed. It then moves through Aristotle's ethics, psychology and theory of tragedy, which redefine reason's collapses in moral-psychological rather than religious terms. By changing the way in which the irrational is conceived, and the nature of its relation to reason, Aristotle eliminates the concept of an irrationality which reason cannot in principle dissolve. The book culminates in an extensive reading of Kierkegaard's pseudonyms, who, in a critical retrieval of both Greek tragedy and Aristotle, prescribe their apparently pathological age a paradoxical task: develop a finite form of subjectivity willing to undergo an unthinkable thought ‑ allow the transcendence of a god to enter into the mind as well as the marrow, to make a tragic appearance in which a limit to the immanence of human reason can again be established.

Author / Editor information

Daniel Greenspan, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Table of Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I Ancient Greece
Chapter 1. Reason and the Irrational: Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	10
Chapter 2. Literature and Moral Psychology: From Homer to Sophocles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
Chapter 3. Aristotle’s Poetics: Oedipus and the Problem of Tragedy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Chapter 4. Psuche Redux: Philosophy and the New Psychology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Chapter 5. Psychologizing Oedipus: Reason and Unreason in Aristotle’s Ethics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
Part II Golden Age Denmark
Chapter 6. Tragedy as Historical Idea: Either/Or’s “Ancient Drama Reflected in the Modern” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
Chapter 7. Stages on Life’s Way: Hamartia after Modernity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	158
Chapter 8. Fear and Trembling: Tragedy, Comedy and the Heroism of Abraham Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Chapter 9. The Concept of Anxiety: Fate and the Tragic Logos of Second Ethics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Chapter 10. Moral Psychology in the Pseudonyms, Search for a Method Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Chapter 11. Ethics Contra Ethics: Climacus on Eternal Happiness and Tragic Virtue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Chapter 12. Kierkegaard and the Tragedy of Authorship Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academics, Libraries, Institutes
Pages
- Front matter: 10
- Main content: 336
Keywords: Aristotle; Kierkegaard; Søren; Madness; Moral Psychology; Tragedy

eBook

Published: November 3, 2008
ISBN: 9783110211177

Hardcover

Published: September 16, 2008
ISBN: 9783110203967