On Germans and Other Greeks

by Schmidt, Dennis J.

• ISBN13: 9780253214430
• ISBN10: 0253214432
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

On Germans and Other GreeksTragedy and Ethical LifeDennis J. SchmidtWhat Greek tragedy and German philosophy reveal about the meaning of art for ethical life."Schmidt's investigation of tragedy is a highly significant, powerful work, one with far-reaching consequences. It bears on our understanding of the role of the arts and of philosophical thinking in our culture." -- Rodolphe GaschéIn this illuminating work, Dennis J. Schmidt examines tragedy as one of the highest forms of human expression for both the ancients and the moderns. While uncovering the specifically Greek nature of tragedy as an exploration of how to live an ethical life, Schmidt's elegant and penetrating readings of Greek texts show that it was the beauty of Greek tragic art that led Kant and other German thinkers to appreciate the relationship between tragedy and ethics. The Germans, however, gave this relationship a distinctly German interpretation. Through the Greeks, the Germans reflected on the enigmas of ethical life and asked innovative questions about how to live an ethical life outside of the typical assumptions and restrictions of traditional Western metaphysics. Schmidt's engagements with Schelling, Hegel, Hölderlin, Nietzsche, and Heidegger show how German philosophical appropriations of Greek tragedy conceived of ethics as moving beyond the struggle between good and evil toward the discovery of community truths. Enlisting a wide range of literary and philosophical texts, some translated into English for the first time, Schmidt reveals that contemporary notions of tragedy, art, ethics, and truth are intimately linked to the Greeks.Dennis J. Schmidt is Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University. He is author of The Ubiquity of the Finite and translator of Ernst Bloch's Natural Law and Human Dignity.Studies in Continental Thought -- John Sallis, general editor May 2001432 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, bibl., indexcloth 0-253-33868-9 $49.95 L / 38.00paper 0-253-21443-2 $24.95 s / 18.95

Author Biography

Dennis J. Schmidt is Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University. He is author of The Ubiquity of the Finite and translator of Ernst Bloch's Natural Law and Human Dignity.

Table of Contents

In Lieu of a Preface	xi
Key to Frequently Cited Works	xvii
Questions	1	(284)
Plato	21	(25)
Aristotle	46	(43)
Interlude: Kant and Schelling	73	(11)
The Earliest System-Program of German Idealism	84	(1)
Tenth Letter on Dogmatism and Criticism	85	(4)
Hegel	89	(33)
Holderlin	122	(69)
Letter to Bohlendorff	165	(3)
Letter to Brother	168	(1)
``In lovely blueness ...''	169	(3)
Empedocles	172	(1)
The Death of Empedocles	173	(18)
Nietzsche	191	(34)
Heidegger	225	(60)
Heidegger's Translation of the Choral Ode from Antigone	267	(2)
Holderlin's Translation of the Choral Ode from Antigone	269	(2)
Convictions and Suspicions	271	(14)
Notes	285	(38)
Bibliography	323	(8)
Index	331