A Philosophy of Tragedy explores the tragic condition of humanity in the modern age. Modernity places us squarely before it: the sheer contingency of our existence, our instability and homelessness, our unredeemed suffering, our polluted condition after Auschwitz, our fractured relation to morality.Christopher Hamilton draws as much on literature as he does on philosophy, including the tragic theatre, and does not simply propose an account of our tragic condition, but explores the nature of philosophy itself, providing a critique of philosophy's self-understanding. He contributes to the debate over 'the death of tragedy', provides a critique of modern virtue ethics, suggests a novel interpretation of the evil of Auschwitz, and explores aspects of the work of some of those thinkers who have seen our condition as tragic, as well as that of those who have refused to find consolation for our tragic condition in philosophy - or anything else.
