Idealism as Heroism

Abstract

Those who decry the lack of shared values in twentieth-century society and what they see as a resultant nihilism, are often perturbed by the loss of traditional values and of a particular view of life; specifically, they seem to disapprove of social, political, ethical and aesthetic pluralism. Furthermore, as in the case of Krutch and Anderson, they do not recognize that the advent of science may have brought about new forms of faith and confidence in humanity. Indeed, it is precisely these new forms of faith to which Nietzsche attributed the demise of tragedy, first in the Socratic era and then in his own time. In a comparable manner, the Marxists’ optimism and social ‘ameliorism’, having as its ultimate vision the revolutionary restructuring of society, has made Marxists wary of literary tragedy. Similarly, the Christian world-view, with its promise of an after-life and divine compensation, is often seen as being at odds with the fatalistic and deterministic demands of tragedy.