Abstract
This volume includes references to many important texts on tragedy, including works by Sophocles, Aristotle, and Hegel. However, thus far one author who may be able to provide further insight into the relationship between tragedy and politics remains conspicuously absent: Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s work on tragedy is particularly compelling because of its original analysis of tragedy and science in terms of political efficacy. Through this analysis, Nietzsche links the concept of tragedy to both politics and epistemology. Besides providing this insight, Nietzsche’s account overlaps with the debate in this volume between Richard Ned Lebow and Nicholas Rengger on the question of whether tragedy embodies a category broader than tragic art and makes a positive contribution to understanding politics and international relations.
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Notes
W. Kaufmann (1967) ‘Translator’s Introduction’, in F. W. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and the Case of Wagner, trans. W. Kaufmann ( New York: Random House, Inc. ), p. 3.
M. Frost, ‘Tragedy, Ethics and International Relations’, this volume, pp. 21–43; J. Mayall, ‘Tragedy, Progress and the International Order, this volume, pp. 44–52;J. P. Euben (1986) ‘Introduction’, in J. P. Euben (ed.) Greek Tragedy and Political Theory ( Berkeley: University of California Press ), p. 17;
A. Ferrara (1998) Reflective Authenticity ( New York: Routledge ), pp. 52, 55.
R. N. Lebow (2003) The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Orders ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ), pp. 364–5.
Cf. S. G. Salkever (1986) ‘Tragedy and the Education of the Dêmos: Aristotle’s Response to Plato’, in Euben (ed.) Greek Tragedy and Political Theory, pp. 290, 297, 300.
F. W. Nietzsche (1968) The Will to Power, trans. W. Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale (New York: Vintage Books), aphorism 532 (p. 289); Cf. aphorisms 477, 499, 500, 515 (pp. 264, 273, 278 ).
Cf. F. W. Nietzsche (1982) Daybreak, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), Aphorism 116;
J. Heil (2004) Philosophy of Mind: A Contemporary Introduction (London: Routledge), pp. 17–18, 53, 226–30.
M. Weber (1969) The Methodology of the Social Sciences, trans. E. A. Shils and H. A. Finch (New York: Free Press), pp. 42, 82, 110–11, 169–70.
M. Oakeshott (1996) ‘Scientific Politics’, in T. Fuller (ed.) Religion, Politics and the Moral Life ( New Haven: Yale University Press ), pp. 97–106.
Nietzsche (1967) Birth of Tragedy, pp. 59–60;Cf. M. Warren (1988) Nietzsche and Political Thought ( Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press ), pp. 127–8, 232.
G. Oakes (1988) Weber and Rickert: Concept Formation in the Cultural Sciences (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press), pp. 49–53, 53–6, 64–8.
F. W. Nietzsche (1982) ‘Twilight of the Idols’, in W. Kaufmann (ed.) The Portable Nietzsche, trans. W. Kaufmann (New York: Viking Penguin Inc. ), pp. 485–6.
A. Ferrara (2008) The Force of the Example ( New York: Columbia University Press ), pp. 57–61.
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© 2012 Benjamin A. Schupmann
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Schupmann, B.A. (2012). A Pessimism of Strength? Tragedy and Political Virtue. In: Erskine, T., Lebow, R.N. (eds) Tragedy and International Relations. Palgrave Studies in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390331_10
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