Shame and NecessityWe tend to suppose that the ancient Greeks had primitive ideas of the self, of responsibility, freedom, and shame, and that now humanity has advanced from these to a more refined moral consciousness. Bernard Williams's original and radical book questions this picture of Western history. While we are in many ways different from the Greeks, Williams claims that the differences are not to be traced to a shift in these basic conceptions of ethical life. We are more like the ancients than we are prepared to acknowledge, and only when this is understood can we properly grasp our most important differences from them, such as our rejection of slavery. The author is a philosopher, but much of his book is directed to writers such as Homer and the tragedians, whom he discusses as poets and not just as materials for philosophy. At the center of his study is the question of how we can understand Greek tragedy at all, when its world is so far from ours. Williams explains how it is that when the ancients speak, they do not merely tell us about themselves, but about ourselves. In a new foreword A.A. Long explores the impact of this volume in the context of Williams's stunning career. |
Contents
The Liberation of Antiquity I | 1 |
Centres of Agency | 21 |
Recognising Responsibility | 50 |
Shame and Autonomy | 75 |
Necessary Identities | 103 |
Possibility Freedom and Power | 130 |
and Guilt | 219 |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles action Aeschylus Agamemnon agent Ajax already ancient argument Aristotle basic belief body called Cambridge cause certainly chap chapter character claim clear conception concerned contrast course criticism decision demand desire discussion distinction effect Eteocles ethical Euripides experience explain expressed fact fear feel force give given gods Greek Tragedy Greeks guilt happened Homer human idea important instance intention interesting involved killing kind later least less live mean merely mind moral motive nature necessary necessity notion particular passage perhaps person philosophy Plato play political practice present problem psychological question reason refers relations remark represented responsibility role seems seen sense shame simply slave slavery social society someone soul speak structure suggested supernatural supposed theory things thought tion tragedy translation true turn understand women