The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 4 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik — Georg Hegel — John Shaqi
The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 4 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
Of a more formal type is that second kind of essential collision,
an illustration of which in the tragic story of Œdipus the Greek
tragedians especially favoured. Of this Sophocles has left us the
most complete example in his "Œdipus Rex," and "Œdipus in Colonos."
The problem here is concerned with the claim of alertness in our
intelligence, with the nature of the obligation[47] implied in that
which a man carries out with a volition fully aware of its acts as
contrasted with that which he has done in fact, but unconscious of
and with no intention of doing what he has done under the directing
providence of the gods. Œdipus slays his father, marries his mother,
begets children in this incestuous alliance, and nevertheless is
involved in these most terrible of crimes without active participation
either in will or knowledge. The point of view of our profounder modern
consciousness of right and wrong would be to recognize that crimes of
this description, inasmuch as they were neither referable to a personal
knowledge or volition, were not deeds for which the true personality of
the perpetrator was responsible. The plastic nature of the Greek on the
contrary adheres to the bare fact which an individual has achieved, and
refuses to face the division implied by the purely ideal attitude of
the soul in the self-conscious life on the one hand and the objective
significance of the fact accomplished on the other.
For ourselves, to conclude this survey, other collisions, which either
in general are related to the universally accepted association of
personal action to the Greek conception of Destiny, or in some measure
to more exceptional conditions, are comparatively speaking less
important.