Hegel, l'idealisme allemand et la tragedie grecque: Le conflit, la speculation et le destin de la politique

This study is concerned with the different interpretations of Greek tragedy proposed by G.W.F. Hegel. While Hegel's philosophical interest in tragedy as an art form is well known, the motivation for his preoccupation with this art form needs to be further explored. Indeed, why would Hegel, as a pivotal figure of German idealism, be inclined to concern himself with a form of poetry that reached its peak in the 5th century B.C.? Precisely this question forms the core of this thesis. We will articulate what the primary stakes are and thereby develop and defend the thesis that Hegel's examination of Greece and tragedy is one that has a direct bearing on the "fate" of politics in the modern world.; The study is comprised of four chapters. The first section examines Hegel's "The Spirit of Christianity and its Fate." In one of the fragments of this essay, Hegel demonstrates that the notion of the tragic nature of fate contains within it the foundations of a conception of action which is capable of eluding the insufficiencies of Judaic legalism, Christian love and Kantian morality.; In the second chapter, the thesis turns to an analysis of an article that Hegel published in 1802 and which deals with natural law. As its title indicates, this text is dedicated to an examination and critique of various modern theories of natural law. The thrust of this article of is to demonstrate that all these extant theories are flawed and replete with irresolvable contradictions. To these theories, Hegel counter poses a notion he calls "the tragic representation of the absolutely ethical life," die Auffuhrung der Tragodie im Sittlichen.; The third chapter is focused on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit . After examining the two chapters in the Phenomenology which concern Greek tragedy, we argue that the theory of ethics and politics Hegel develops in this work contains facets that clearly belong to a tragic conception of human action and interaction. According to Hegel, this conception avails itself of elements that can contribute to the development of an ethics and politics capable of remedying the limitations of the moralism, legalism and liberalism of modernity.; Finally, the forth chapter of this study is focused on Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art which Hegel gave in the course of his position as Chair of Philosophy at the University of Berlin between 1818 to 1831. It is in these lectures that he pronounced his famous thesis on "the end of art." Quite obviously, it with regard to this thesis that we analyze what one could arguably call his definitive theory of Greek tragedy. This study then turns to the legacy of Hegel's interrogation of the poetics of tragedy through an examination of Nietzsche's and Heidegger's theories of tragedy.