Tragedy Without the Gods: Autonomy, Necessity and the Real Self

British Journal of Aesthetics 54 (2):141-159 (2014)
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Abstract

The classical tragedies relate conflicts, choices and dilemmas that have meaningful parallels in our own experience. Many of the normative dimensions of tragedy, however, rely critically on the causal and motivational efficacy of divine forces. In particular, these narratives present supernatural interventions invading their characters’ practical deliberations and undermining their claims to autonomous agency. Does this dynamic find any analogy in a contemporary, secular conception of moral agency? It does, but it is an analogy that challenges certain standard philosophical accounts of agentive self-governance.

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A. E. Denham
University of Oxford

Citations of this work

Hegel on Purpose.Arto Laitinen & Constantine Sandis - 2019 - Hegel Bulletin 40 (3):444-463.

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References found in this work

Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person.Harry Frankfurt - 1971 - In Gary Watson (ed.), Free Will. Oxford University Press.
Praise, Blame and the Whole Self.Nomy Arpaly & Timothy Schroeder - 1999 - Philosophical Studies 93 (2):161-188.
Personal autonomy.Sarah Buss - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Alienation and Externality.Timothy Schroeder & Nomy Arpaly - 1999 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 29 (3):371-387.

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