The Philosophy of Tragedy
From Plato to Žižek

This book is a full survey of the philosophy of tragedy from antiquity to the present. From Aristotle to Žižek the focal question has been: why, in spite of its distressing content, do we value tragic drama? What is the nature of the 'tragic effect'? Some philosophers point to a certain kind of pleasure that results from tragedy. Others, while not excluding pleasure, emphasize the knowledge we gain from tragedy - of psychology, ethics, freedom or immortality. Through a critical engagement with these and other philosophers, the book concludes by suggesting an answer to the question of what it is that constitutes tragedy 'in its highest vocation'. This book will be of equal interest to students of philosophy and of literature.

1. Plato; 2. Aristotle; 3. After Aristotle; 4. Hume; 5. Schelling; 6. Hölderlin; 7. Hegel; 8. Kierkegaard; 9. Schopenhauer; 10. Nietzsche; 11. Benjamin and Schmitt; 12. Heidegger; 13. Camus; 14. Arthur Miller; 15. Žižek; 16. Conclusions.

Julian Young is William R. Kenan Professor of Humanities at Wake Forest University. He has written eleven books, which have been translated into Turkish, Chinese, Iranian, Greek, Portuguese and Polish. His most recent book, Friedrich Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography, won the Association of American Publishers 2010 PROSE Award for philosophy and was selected by Choice as an 'Outstanding Academic Title' of 2010. Young has written for the Guardian, New York Times and Harper's Magazine and has appeared on radio and TV in New Zealand, Ireland and the United States. In addition to more than fifty articles in philosophy journals and collections, he has published in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience and the Journal of the Royal Musical Association.