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FOUR FACETS OF THE RELATION OF TRAGEDY TO DIALECTIC AND THE THEME OF CRISIS OF EXPECTATIONS A Dissertation by MUHAMMAD HARIS Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2008 Major Subject: Philosophy FOUR FACETS OF THE RELATION OF TRAGEDY TO DIALECTIC AND THE THEME OF CRISIS OF EXPECTATIONS A Dissertation by MUHAMMAD HARIS Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, John J. McDermott Committee Members, Scott Austin Robert W. Burch Theodore George Larson Powell Head of Department, Daniel Conway May 2008 Major Subject: Philosophy iii ABSTRACT Four Facets of the Relation of Tragedy to Dialectic and the Theme of Crisis of Expectations. (May 2008) Muhammad Haris, B.E., NED University of Engineering and Technology; M.E., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. John J. McDermott As a whole, this work serves to illuminate the tragic as a fundamental human phenomenon and an objective fact that is distinct not only from comedy and irony but from other forms of calamity and modes of failure. I consider three distinct sources of philosophical knowledge on tragedy. The first is tragic drama and literature, the second is the theory of the tragic and the third source consists of the employment of the concept of tragedy to discuss events or characters that one encounters in life. I carefully draw upon the first two sources to thicken the elaborations of four different facets of the third. In this process, I extrapolate Szondi’s notion that tragedy is a specific dialectic in a specific space. In the course of this work, I place a greater emphasis upon this general concept of the tragic as opposed to a poetics of tragedy. The dissertation bears out, however, that it is ultimately poetics - and not the dialectic as general concept - that provide us with the richer insights into tragedy as it unravels in life. The specific dialectic of tragedy unravels so as to cause the irreplaceable loss of something of great value. This provides me with a structuring element that ties the four central chapters together. In terms of content, I emphasize also upon the tragic flaw as a set of character traits (manifested by an individual or some form of collective) which keep tragedy in place. The consideration of the figure of Willy Loman allows me to examine the tragedy of failure of expectations which is a distinct category of the tragic and yet it oscillates such that ties together the other themes. A central idea that emerges from an analysis of the overlapping themes is that prior to tragedy is the investment of the deepest inner resources into a process. This investment gives rise to identity and to expectations. As a tragedy unfolds, the source of the identity or of expectation becomes also the birth place or the generator of all threats to this identity and the collapse of long nurtured expectations. iv DEDICATION I dedicate the dissertation and the doctorate to my father, Anwar Hussain, my mother Shamim Anwar and sisters Naureen and Mehreen who live in Karachi, Pakistan. I can never forget their unstinting love towards me as I remained away from home for a long time. I hope to be able to reciprocate all that they have borne for my sake. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There is no doubt in my mind that my dissertation in particular and my doctorate in general would not have been possible without the caring presence of my advisor Professor John J. McDermott in my life. He is an educational genius of the first order, an institution in himself. I like to think that intelligence, as a real virtue of character, corresponds with a great resource of kindness. All else is, in my view, cold, heartless cleverness. I have been Professor McDermott’s student for more than six years and during all this time, I have seen him live out a kind intelligence, not only in his writing but also in the way in which he forms and maintains relations with his students, colleagues, friends and family. I would like to say that the most important lessons that I have learnt from him center upon the practice of a kind intelligence in forming relations with the intellectual life and with other people. These lessons go beyond what I have expressed in my dissertation. I also like to draw a distinction between credentials and intelligence for in my mind the two are not dependent upon each other. When I first wandered into Professor McDermott’s existentialism class at Texas A&M University back in the fall of 2001, I was completely ignorant about his credentials. I was a graduate student in engineering then and I simply wanted to learn in depth about existentialism and philosophy and that is why I stepped into his class. There was no prior conditioning in that I was not aware of Professor McDermott’s high rank at Texas A&M or his fame in the field of philosophy. I realized during the first fifteen minutes of class that I was in the presence of a serious man whose heart and mind were full of emotions and ideas that had concrete global significance. Briefly stated, I was moved. He gave me the courage to think with passion and always with a sensibility driven by a persistent question – what is the consequence or purchase of my thought? Thank You Professor McDermott. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER Page I INTRODUCTION………………………………………………. 1 II IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES OR DIREMPTION AND CONFLICT IN DIALECTIC…….………………………………. 14 III TRAGEDY OF CULTURE OR OBJECTIFICATION AND ALIENATION IN DIALECTIC ……………………………….... 49 IV SELF DECEPTION AS TRAGEDY OR ALIENATION IN DIALECTIC…………………………………………………... 79 V TRAGEDY AS FAILURE OF EXPECTATIONS AND THE QUESTION OF DIGNITY…………………………………….... 107 VI CONCLUSION…………………………………………………… 162 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………….... 170 VITA………………………………………………………………………... 172 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In terms of content, the underlying focus throughout the dissertation remains upon formulating connotative responses to the following questions – What are the traits that keep tragedy in place? Or what is the tragic flaw that lies at the root of the forms of human tragedy under consideration? The dialectic is the structural element which provides the bare skeleton on which the contents of tragedy are placed as flesh. I am investigating the relation of various aspects of dialectic (as in Hegel, Szondi, Simmel, Sartre, Nietzsche) to tragedy in life and also in life as represented in drama (as in Antigone, Oedipus, King Lear and Death of a Salesman). I rely upon Hegel’s definition of the processes in dialectic, that is, the unification of opposites, the sudden transformation into one’s opposite, self-division and the negative positing of oneself1. I am however, not embracing Hegel’s full metaphysics. Neither do I adhere to any form of necessitarianism, Hegelian or otherwise. In particular, I do not follow any notion of Aufhebung or Sublation (Hegelian or not) which implies a resolution or reconciliation of tragedy. It can be argued that a tragic process moves dialectically towards a dignified, teleological end, but my primary aim is to gain philosophical insight into the processes of tragedy and not the end. Moreover, I will demonstrate in this dissertation that the tragic dialectic consumes something of great value which cannot be recovered. One can present arguments to justify the loss but these arguments do not lead to a revival of what has been definitively lost. Speaking in terms of structure, the second chapter is about diremption and conflict in the dialectic; the third chapter is about objectification and alienation in dialectic and the fourth is about self-deception in dialectic. The upshot of chapters II, III and IV is to appear in the fifth chapter which is about the crisis of identity or the failure of persons’ expectations. There are certain basic premises on which this dissertation is grounded. Firstly, tragedy is an objective fact, event or phenomenon that has the potential to unfold in human experience; it is not a take or perspective on a situation. Secondly, tragedy is exclusively a human phenomenon and the destruction caused by tragedy is felt as a real and irreplaceable loss by human persons. Not all of human life is tragic; I am not embracing any kind of existential pantragism. The tragic This dissertation follows the style and format of The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. 1 See Peter Szondi, An Essay on the Tragic, translated by Paul Fleming (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), p. 55. 2 is rather very specific and it may or may not become an experience for a person or group of persons. Having said this, I need to assert clearly that in my mind the tragic phenomenon can and does express itself in a variety of ways. We cannot say that there is only one form or category of tragedy. On the contrary, the tragic is multifaceted and different people can and do experience different forms of tragedy based on varying social and historical contexts. This means that the tragic is not a universal essence or concept that can be applied across differing situations. I think that the tragic is intractable in its concreteness. A tragic event undoubtedly unfolds in time and is subject to transience. In the perspective of one looking at a past tragic event, it may change and get transformed into something else. Thinkers can justify a tragedy on the basis of the discovery of a causal relation between the destruction and future human progress.

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