Book contents
- Kant and Literary Studies
- Cambridge Studies in Literature and Philosophy
- Kant and Literary Studies
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Kant on Literature
- Chapter 1 “Differing Only in Degree”
- Chapter 2 On Power in an Extra-secular Sense
- Chapter 3 Kant and the Problem of Tragedy
- Part II Kant, Literary Theory, and the Critical Formation of the “Human” Disciplines
- Part III Kant and Literature
- Index
- References
Chapter 3 - Kant and the Problem of Tragedy
from Part I - Kant on Literature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2025
Edited by
Book contents
- Kant and Literary Studies
- Cambridge Studies in Literature and Philosophy
- Kant and Literary Studies
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Kant on Literature
- Chapter 1 “Differing Only in Degree”
- Chapter 2 On Power in an Extra-secular Sense
- Chapter 3 Kant and the Problem of Tragedy
- Part II Kant, Literary Theory, and the Critical Formation of the “Human” Disciplines
- Part III Kant and Literature
- Index
- References
Summary
Kant’s own philosophy has seemed to some to contain a tragic dimension, since reason cannot avoid posing questions it cannot answer, and since we must hold ourselves to a moral standard which we rarely if ever reach. However, in his remarks on tragic drama, Kant expresses several concerns about the effects of watching tragedies, and these remarks indicate that he is hostile to what he regards as the portrayal of virtue and vice in such dramas. The argument of this chapter is that Kant’s resistance to there being anything of general philosophical significance in “the tragic point of view” is of broader significance than a matter of aesthetic taste. Tragedy is a notion deeply foreign to him, not because of some peculiarity of Kant’s personality, or even all that much as a result of his moral theory and critical philosophy, but because tragedy, understood broadly, deeply, and rightly, is foreign to philosophy as traditionally conceived, at least up until Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy. Various dimensions of the opposition between tragedy and moral philosophy are then explored and comparisons with Hegel Schiller, Bernard Williams, and others about the moral status of tragedy are suggested.
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- Kant and Literary Studies , pp. 71 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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