Tragic Pathos: Pity and Fear in Greek Philosophy and Tragedy

Scholars have often focused on understanding Aristotle's poetic theory, and particularly the concept of catharsis in the Poetics, as a reply to Plato's critique of pity in the Republic. But this book shows that, while Greek thinkers each acknowledge pity and some form of fear as responses to tragedy, each has in mind a different purpose, mode of presentation and, to a degree, understanding of the two emotions. This book reassesses expressions of the emotions within different tragedies and explores emotional responses to the tragedies and the discussion of them by contemporary philosophers, offering insights into the ethical and social implications of the emotions.