This book is an attempt by a modern philosopher and a classicist to combine recent philosophical and anthropological interest in systems of thought with a reading of Sophocles' 'Antigone'. The study postulates a fundamental distinction between what it calls 'separative' and 'interconnected cosmologies' - a distinction between modern, Western thought 'based on separation of entities and categories and subsequent unification' and a less absolute separation of categories, where implicit connections are left hidden. 'Separative cosmologies' typically aim to remove ambiguities and obscurities by categorization; in 'interconnected cosmologies', 'differentiation does not lead to clear and distinct entities and categories. Their demarcations are not clear but cumulative'. 'Antigone', the authors claim, is read by modern critics within the framework of a 'separative cosmology' which leads to a distorted understanding of the play, since it was produced within the context of an 'interconnected cosmology'.
Author(s): Theodoor C. W. Oudemans, André P. M. H. Lardinois
Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 4
Publisher: E. J. Brill
Year: 1987
Language: English
Pages: 272
City: Leiden
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Intercultural comparisons
1.2. Premises of our method
APPENDIX
CHAPTER TWO. SEPARATIVE COSMOLOGIES
2.1. Fundamental cosmological categories
2.2. Aspects of separative cosmologies
2.3. Harmonization in separative cosmology
CHAPTER THREE. INTERCONNECTED COSMOLOGIES
3.1. Building materials of interconnected cosmologies
3.2. Man and nature
3.3. Man and his gods
3.4. Social relations
3.5. Life and death
3.6. Law and order
3.7. Darkness and insight
CHAPTER FOUR. ASPECTS OF ANCIENT GREEK COSMOLOGY
4.1. Building materials of ancient Greek cosmology
4.2. Man and nature
4.3 The Greeks and their gods
4.4. Social relations
4.5. Life and death
4.6. Law and order
4.7. Darkness and insight
CHAPTER FIVE. EXISTING INTERPRETATIONS OF SOPHOCLES' ANTIGONE
5.1. The directly separative point of view
5.2. The harmonizing point of view
CHAPTER SIX. THE STASIMA OF SOPHOCLES' ANTIGONE
6.0. Introduction
6.1. The first 'stasimon'
6.2. The second 'stasimon'
6.3. The third 'stasimon'
6.4. The fourth 'stasimon'
6.5. The parode and the last 'stasimon'
CHAPTER SEVEN. THE EPISODES OF SOPHOCLES' ANTIGONE
7.1. Creon's speech
7.2. Antigone's speech
7.3. Antigone and Ismene
7.4. Creon and the guard
7.5. Creon and Antigone
7.6. Haemon, Creon and Antigone
7.7. Antigone's reversal
7.8. Creon's reversal
7.9. Sophocles' cosmology
CHAPTER EIGHT. TRAGEDY AND SOME PHILOSOPHERS
8.0. Introduction
8.1. Plato's banishment of tragedy
8.2. Ricoeur's reconciliation of tragedy and philosophy
8.3. Philosophical acceptance of tragedy
Conclusion
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX LOCORUM
INDEX OF SELECTED TOPICS
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES
