This course will explore the ethical questions raised by the possibility of ‘tragic action’ – action that one is responsible for without having freely chosen to do it. The focus will be on Sophocles’ Ajax, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. The main characters’ predicament will consider topics, such as (i) blameworthiness, (ii) responsibility, and (iii) the justice of their demise.
Apart from the specific plays, readings form philosophers whose ethical views were developed in dialog with tragedy (Aristotle, Hegel, Nietzsche, Nussbaum and Williams) will be discussed. The main aim of the course will be that of distinguishing moral and ethical evaluations, and the mode in which the difference between morality and ethics is brought into focus by Sophocles’ tragic universe.