ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Aristotle's use of tragedy as a constituent in the internal validation of his ethics. It discusses the Platonic legacy. Plato is important not merely because he sets the context for Aristotle's discussion, but because he has a darker view of the limitations of human reason. For Plato, the ultimate opacity of human destructiveness plays a crucial role in his decision to banish tragedy from the polis. The chapter aims to Aristotle's account of tragedy. S. Freud's thinking seems to vacillate among shades of darkness, almost as a shopper in front of a rack of dark suits hesitating as to which goes best. In Plato's case, Lear sees the repudiation of tragedy as stemming from a troubled sense of the existence of violent, destructive forces in the psyche, which lie beyond the explanatory power, although not the repressive control, of reason.
