On the Tragic

Cover
Contents
Foreword by David Benatar
Foreword by Thomas Ligotti
Translator’s Preface
Author’s Preface
Chapter 1. Introduction
	§ 1. Goal and method
	§ 2. Concerns
Chapter 2. Biological Conditions
	§ 3. Individual and the outside world
	§ 4. Fundamental features of the individual’s life
	§ 5. Uexküll’s schema
	§ 6. Conflict
	§ 7. Morality. Terminology
	§ 8. Abilities. Surplus and deficiency
Chapter 3. On Primitiveness and Differentiation
	§ 9. Protoplasm
	§ 10. Primitiveness in humans
Chapter 4. Human Interest Fronts
	§ 11. Biological interest front
	§ 12. Social interest front
	§ 13. Autotelic interest front
	§ 14. Metaphysical interest front
	§ 15. Polyfrontal engagements
Chapter 5. On Over-equipment and Unfixedness in Humans
	§ 16. Character
	§ 17. Over-equipment. General remarks
	§ 18. Physical power
	§ 19. Perception
	§ 20. Intellect
	§ 21. Memory
	§ 22. Imagination
	§ 23. Emotion
	§ 24. Other abilities
	§ 25. Combinations
	§ 26. More on character and personality
	§ 27. Example
	§ 28. The “metaphysical-melancholic clarity of vision”
	§ 29. Comment
	§ 30. Variations in metaphysical readiness
	§ 31. Metaphysical-moral anxiety
	§ 32. A test subject goes into the fire
	§ 33. Psychopathological point of view
	§ 34. Pathological form – cultural relevance
	§ 35. The concept of culture
	§ 36. The abnormal
	§ 37. Psychiatry and culture
	§ 38. The cultural-pathological paradox
	§ 39. Comment
	§ 40. Birnbaum’s conclusion
	§ 41. Other authors
	§ 42. Comment. Own conclusions
	§ 43. Parallels from the animal kingdom
Chapter 6. Real Solution and Surrogate
	§ 44. Introduction
	§ 45. Real and pseudo-solutions. Concepts
	§ 46. Surrogate posture
	§ 47. Real solution associated with deficit in general (1 a)
	§ 48. Deficiency. Surrogate solution (1 b)
	§ 49. Surplus state. Real Solution (2 a)
	§ 50. Under-fixedness (3)
	§ 51. Over-fixedness and error-fixedness (4)
	§ 52. First example
	§ 53. Second example
	§ 54. Third example
	§ 55. Fourth example
	§ 56. The experience image
	§ 57. The desire image
	§ 58. The working image
	§ 59. Metaphysical morality
	§ 60. Fifth example
Chapter 7. On Catastrophes
	§ 61. Suffering, misfortune, catastrophe
	§ 62. Catastrophes. The individual links
	§ 63. Object of attack
	§ 64. The attacking power
	§ 65. Own complicity
	§ 66. The first outline of the concept of guilt
	§ 67. The importance of criminal law for the present context
	§ 68. Outline of the general part of criminal law
	§ 69. Existential guilt, physiological guilt, functional guilt, psychological and ethical guilt
	§ 70. Criminal guilt
	§ 71. Metaphysical guilt
	§ 72. The occasion, the “triggering cause”
	§ 73. The posture of the stricken person
Chapter 8. Qualified Catastrophes. Determination of the Objectively Tragic
	§ 74. Qualifications. Double-acting impetus. Peripeteia
	§ 75. The tragic qualification
	§ 76. Comment
	§ 77. Victim and observer
	§ 78. Culturally relevant greatness
	§ 79. Greatness and catastrophe
	§ 80. A. The counterpower is linked to the origin, unfolding, or result of greatness
	§ 81. B. Catastrophe by autotelic and heterotelic greatness
	§ 82. C. Greatness in fixedness and capacity
	§ 83. D. Greatness asserts itself in the biological, social, or metaphysical field of interest. It unfolds in a hostile (satanic), indifferent, or sympathetic environment
	§ 84. E. Greatness is linked to a real or pseudo-engagement
	§ 85. F. The catastrophe strikes (directly or indirectly) the interest associated with greatness, or it strikes a different interest
	§ 86. G. Greatness is one- or multi-sided; it leads to catastrophe through conflict or without conflict
	§ 87. H. The counterpower is internal or external or both
	§ 88. I. The stricken contributes to the course with existential guilt, physiological guilt, functional guilt, psychological, ethical, criminal, or metaphysical guilt. The term “tragic guilt”
	§ 89. K. Randomness and necessity in the tragic course
	§ 90. Is there an absolutely necessary tragedy?
	§ 91. With the question of the necessity of the tragic, another naturally arises: Can the tragic be overcome?
	§ 92. The heroic
	§ 93. Tragedy and lifeview
Chapter 9. On the Autotelic Experience of the Tragic
	§ 94. Autotelic and heterotelic viewpoints
	§ 95. New field of experience
	§ 96. The tragic course of poetry
	§ 97. The theater
	§ 98. The term “aesthetic”
	§ 99. The relativity of the viewer
	§ 100. Introspective method
	§ 101. The individual factors of the poetic-tragic experience
	§ 102. The overall poetic-tragic course
	§ 103. Comment
Chapter 10. Tragic Poetic Works
	§ 104. Introduction
	§ 105. Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound
	§ 106. Job
	§ 107. Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Chapter 11. Scattered Features from the Literature on the Tragic
	§ 108. Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
	§ 109. Sketch of the history of tragic theory in recent times
	§ 110. Theodor Lipps
	§ 111. Johannes Volkelt
	§ 112. Josef Körner
Summary
Index