Tragic Ambiguity: Anthropology, Philosophy and Sophocles' Antigone (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Vol 4) (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 4)

This book is an attempt by a modern philosopher and a classicist to combine recent philosophical and anthropological interest in systems of thought with a reading of Sophocles' 'Antigone'. The study postulates a fundamental distinction between what it calls 'separative' and 'interconnected cosmologies' - a distinction between modern, Western thought 'based on separation of entities and categories and subsequent unification' and a less absolute separation of categories, where implicit connections are left hidden. 'Separative cosmologies' typically aim to remove ambiguities and obscurities by categorization; in 'interconnected cosmologies', 'differentiation does not lead to clear and distinct entities and categories. Their demarcations are not clear but cumulative'. 'Antigone', the authors claim, is read by modern critics within the framework of a 'separative cosmology' which leads to a distorted understanding of the play, since it was produced within the context of an 'interconnected cosmology'. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Intercultural comparisons 1.2. Premises of our method APPENDIX CHAPTER TWO. SEPARATIVE COSMOLOGIES 2.1. Fundamental cosmological categories 2.2. Aspects of separative cosmologies 2.3. Harmonization in separative cosmology CHAPTER THREE. INTERCONNECTED COSMOLOGIES 3.1. Building materials of interconnected cosmologies 3.2. Man and nature 3.3. Man and his gods 3.4. Social relations 3.5. Life and death 3.6. Law and order 3.7. Darkness and insight CHAPTER FOUR. ASPECTS OF ANCIENT GREEK COSMOLOGY 4.1. Building materials of ancient Greek cosmology 4.2. Man and nature 4.3 The Greeks and their gods 4.4. Social relations 4.5. Life and death 4.6. Law and order 4.7. Darkness and insight CHAPTER FIVE. EXISTING INTERPRETATIONS OF SOPHOCLES' ANTIGONE 5.1. The directly separative point of view 5.2. The harmonizing point of view CHAPTER SIX. THE STASIMA OF SOPHOCLES' ANTIGONE 6.0. Introduction 6.1. The first 'stasimon' 6.2. The second 'stasimon' 6.3. The third 'stasimon' 6.4. The fourth 'stasimon' 6.5. The parode and the last 'stasimon' CHAPTER SEVEN. THE EPISODES OF SOPHOCLES' ANTIGONE 7.1. Creon's speech 7.2. Antigone's speech 7.3. Antigone and Ismene 7.4. Creon and the guard 7.5. Creon and Antigone 7.6. Haemon, Creon and Antigone 7.7. Antigone's reversal 7.8. Creon's reversal 7.9. Sophocles' cosmology CHAPTER EIGHT. TRAGEDY AND SOME PHILOSOPHERS 8.0. Introduction 8.1. Plato's banishment of tragedy 8.2. Ricoeur's reconciliation of tragedy and philosophy 8.3. Philosophical acceptance of tragedy Conclusion BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX LOCORUM INDEX OF SELECTED TOPICS INDEX OF PROPER NAMES By Th.c.w. Oudemans And A.p.m.h. Lardinois. Includes Indexes. Bibliography: P. [237]-248.