
Destiny Domesticated
The Rebirth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Technology
Jos de Mul(Author)
State University of New York Press
Published on 1. March 2014
Book
Hardback
358 pages
978-1-4384-4971-5 (ISBN)
Description
Analyzes contemporary technological society through the lens of Greek tragedy.
Destiny Domesticated investigates three ways Western civilization has tried to tame fate: the heroic affirmation of fate in the tragic culture of the Greeks, the humble acceptance of divine providence in Christianity, and the abolition of fate in modern technological society. Against this background, Jos de Mul argues that the uncontrollability of technology introduces its own tragic dimension to our culture. Considering a range of literary texts and contemporary events, and drawing on twenty-five centuries of tragedy interpretation from philosophers such as Aristotle, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, literary critics George Steiner and Terry Eagleton, and others, de Mul articulates a contemporary perspective on the tragic, shedding new light on philosophical topics such as free will, determinism, and the contingency of life.
Destiny Domesticated investigates three ways Western civilization has tried to tame fate: the heroic affirmation of fate in the tragic culture of the Greeks, the humble acceptance of divine providence in Christianity, and the abolition of fate in modern technological society. Against this background, Jos de Mul argues that the uncontrollability of technology introduces its own tragic dimension to our culture. Considering a range of literary texts and contemporary events, and drawing on twenty-five centuries of tragedy interpretation from philosophers such as Aristotle, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, literary critics George Steiner and Terry Eagleton, and others, de Mul articulates a contemporary perspective on the tragic, shedding new light on philosophical topics such as free will, determinism, and the contingency of life.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
658 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4384-4971-5 (9781438449715)
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Schweitzer Classification
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E-Book
01/2014
1st Edition
De Gruyter
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Persons
Jos de Mul is Full Professor of Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He is the author of Cyberspace Odyssey: Towards a Virtual Ontology and Anthropology; The Tragedy of Finitude: Dilthey's Hermeneutics of Life; and Romantic Desire in (Post)modern Art and Philosophy, also published by SUNY Press.
Content
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1. Destiny Domesticated
2. Chance Living
3. Fatal Politics
4. The (Non-)Reproducibility of the Tragic
5. The Art of Suffering
6. Awesome Technologies
7. Tragic Parenthood
8. Fateful Machines
9. Exodus
Notes
Works Cited
Name Index
Subject Index
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1. Destiny Domesticated
2. Chance Living
3. Fatal Politics
4. The (Non-)Reproducibility of the Tragic
5. The Art of Suffering
6. Awesome Technologies
7. Tragic Parenthood
8. Fateful Machines
9. Exodus
Notes
Works Cited
Name Index
Subject Index