Philosophy and Tragedy Tragedy has always been an important topic in philosophy, ever since Aristotle first wrote about the subject in his Poetics, However, despite tragedy’s consistent presence in post-Kantian thought, the relationship between tragedy and philosophy has never before been systematically addressed and investigated. Philosophy and Tragedy is a unique and original collection of essays by some of today’s leading philosophers on the encounter between philosophy and tragedy in the work of Hegel, Hölderlin, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Benjamin. The present volume asks the fundamental question why it is that after Hegel, philosophy seems to have been preoccupied with the ‘tragic’ and explores the dynamics of the relationship between tragic form and philosophical enquiry. The essays demonstrate how the model of tragedy affords the most extreme and thorough presentation of conflicts which are at the heart of continental philosophy, such as the topics of freedom, necessity, identity and historicity, and reveal why tragedy is so essential to modern philosophical thinking. The contributors to this volume are: Miguel de Beistegui, Walter Brogan, Jean-François Courtine, Françoise Dastur, Günter Figal, Marc Froment-Meurice, Rodolphe Gasché, David Farrell Krell, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Will McNeill, Simon Sparks. Miguel de Beistegui is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick. Simon Sparks is Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, University of Strasbourg. Warwick Studies in European Philosophy Edited by Andrew Benjamin Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick This series presents the best and most original work being done within the European philosophical tradition. The books included in the series seek not merely to reflect what is taking place within European philosophy, but also to contribute to the growth and development of that plural tradition. Work written in the English language as well as translations into English are to be included, engaging the tradition at all levels—whether by introductions that show the contemporary philosophical force of certain works, or by collections that explore an important thinker or topic, or by significant contributions that call for their own critical evaluation. Titles already published in the series: Walter Benjamin’s Philosophy Edited by Andrew Benjamin and Peter Osborne Bataille: Writing the Sacred Edited by Carolyn Bailey Gill Emmanuel Levinas: The Genealogy of Ethics John Llewelyn Maurice Blanchot: The Demand of Writing Edited by Carolyn Bailey Gill Body-and Image-Space: Re-reading Walter Benjamin Sigrid Weigel (trans. Georgina Paul) Passion in Theory: Conceptions of Freud and Lacan Robyn Ferrell Hegel After Derrida Edited by Stuart Barnett Retreating the Political Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Jean-Luc Nancy On Jean-Luc Nancy: The Sense of Philosophy Edited by Darren Sheppard, Simon Sparks and Colin Thomas Deleuze and Philosophy: The Difference Engineer Edited by Keith Ansell Pearson Very Little…Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature Simon Critchley Blanchot: Extreme Contemporary Leslie Hill Textures of Light: Vision and Touch in Irigaray, Levinas and Merleau-Ponty Cathryn Vasseleu Essays on Otherness Jean Laplanche Philosophy and Tragedy Edited by Miguel de Beistegui and Simon Sparks First published 2000 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2000 Miguel de Beistegui and Simon Sparks for selection and editorial matter; the contributors for individual chapters. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Philosophy and tragedy/[edited by] Simon Sparks and Miguel de Beistegui.  p. cm.—(Warwick studies in European philosophy)  Includes bibliographical references and index.   (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Tragic, The—History—19th century. 2. Philosophy, German—19th century. 3. Tragic, The—History—20th century. 4. Philosophy, German-20th century. I. Sparks, Simon, 1970–II. Beistegui, Miguel de, 1966–. III. Series.  BH301.T7P45 1999  128–dc21 99–28329   CIP ISBN 0-203-98175-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN: 978-0-415-19141-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-98175-7 (ebk)