The Love That Kills
Phaedra’s Challenges to a Philosophy of Eros
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22133996 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joseph S O’leary (0009-0004-8787-185X, Sophia University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 81 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-09 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2409-9287 • E-ISSN: 2409-9287 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/philosophies10040081 |
| OpenAlex | W4412201420 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
Focusing on the legend of Phaedra and Hippolytus as developed in Euripides and Seneca and especially in Racine’s Phèdre and taking into account as well its further development in works by Camillo Boito, Luchino Visconti, and Yukio Mishima, I make the following arguments: (1) Contrary to many theologians and philosophers of love, a pathological form of love that issues in murder and suicide should not be regarded as unworthy of serious attention. Racine’s tragedy provides a catharsis for universal experiences of unrequited love and jealousy, a major human phenomenon. (2) Contrary to Paul Valéry, Phèdre’s love cannot be called merely animal, since the analytical insight she develops into her morbid passion carries tremendous moral force and lies at the origin of the European psychological novel, as launched by Madame de La Fayette a year later. (3) Contrary to François Mauriac, even if she is a heroine of desire or concupiscence rather than of “true love” (in contrast to the relatively innocent affections of Hippolyte and Aricie), the incredible beauty of her language resists such an easy categorization. (4) Study of concrete presentations of “love” in literature confirms that the meaning and use of this word is marked by an irreducible pluralism. Philosophical and theological analysis of love has to come to terms with this. (5) The role of a work of art, in crystallizing archetypical emotions and situations in a way that carries authority, is to provide the middle ground between the abstractions of philosophy on the one hand and the uncontrollable diversity of the empirical on the other. Even psychologies or sociologies of love, which claim to be close to the concrete data, need to be anchored in and corrected by the special concrete vision that only great literature can bring
Art · Environmental ethics · Classical Antiquity Studies · Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research · Philosophy · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
| Highly cited | No |
|---|