Om det tragiske

by Peter Wessel Zapffe

Om det tragiske er Zapffes doktoravhandling fra 1941, og et resultat av en elleve år lang skriveprosess. I sitt arbeid for å belyse menneskets tragiske disposisjon, bruker Zapffe det han kaller den "biologiske metode". Slik man i biologien studerer de enkelte arters tilpasninger til livets utfordringer, studerer han menneskets muligheter i forhold til dets evner. Zapffe slår fast at mennesket er overutrustet i den forstand at det har utviklet et intellekt og en evne til å tenke og reflektere over sin egen situasjon. Dette erkjennelsesoverskuddet er dypt tragisk. For som det søkende mennesket uunngåelig vil oppdage, finnes det ingen mening i det som skjer, og ingen rettferdighet i den gitte verdensordenen. Mennesket prøver derfor å fortrenge de spørsmål som er ubehagelige å dvele ved, gjennom forskjellige distraksjoner og forlystelser som kan tjene som en forankring i tilværelsen.

Om det tragiske presenterer ingen svar eller løsninger for leseren, men kan på mange måter leses som en anklage, en prosedyre mot den allmektige, som han i kapitlet om Job kaller en verdenshersker av grotesk primitivitet, en kosmisk huleboer, en skrythals og buldrebasse. Selv kalte Zapffe seg antiteist, han kunne ikke innfinne seg med at Gud skulle stå som en garantist for dypere mening.

(fra www.bokklubben.no)

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Essays

535 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Peter Wessel Zapffe [pronounced ZAP-fe] was a Norwegian philosopher, author and mountaineer. He was well known for his somewhat pessimistic view of human existence and his philosophy is widely considered to be pessimistic, much like the earlier work of Arthur Schopenhauer, by whom he was inspired. His thoughts regarding the error of human existence are presented in the essay, The Last Messiah (original: Den sidste Messias, 1933). This essay is a shorter version of his best-known work, the philosophical treatise, On the tragic (original: Om det tragiske 1941). He called his brand of thought, biosophy, which he defined as "thinking on life".

(Source: wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jean Bourgeois · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to sit in a fjord and feel existential

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be thinking about this one for a while. I was not familiar with the biosophical angle beforehand so the early chapters which focus on biology (e.g. Uexküll’s schema for the inner and outer world) took me by surprise. Very much enjoyed his discussions of Hamlet and the Book of Job in particular, and his thorough attempt to come to a clear and unambiguous definition of the tragic. Also neat to find a short summary at the very end of the book which I probably should have read first so as to have some idea of his approach before slogging through 500+ fairly dense pages.

[Veronika Olsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overraskende mye humor hos Peter. Den er til tider tung å lese, tankerekkene til Peter er ofte lange og det må en del konsentrasjon og hukommelse til får å henge helt med. Men de små vitsene hjelper godt på :) Språket er umoderne, men en blir vandt til det etter et par sider.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here’s what I thought after finishing it:

I think it’s pretty similar to The Last Messiah, at least from my perspective. I really liked some of the chapters about pain and suffering. I think if we can satisfy our needs — or if we have enough resources and merit to do so — we’re happy. If not, we suffer. But I think both satisfaction and dissatisfaction are tiring and full of suffering in their own ways.

Pain is a core part of life. It can come from dissatisfaction or discomfort, both physical and mental. There’s also the pain of change — knowing that nothing lasts. We struggle so hard to meet our needs, but once we do, our happiness starts to fade, and we have to keep chasing it. Sometimes we even fall into the hedonistic treadmill, where we get less happiness from the same things over time.

Then there’s metaphysical or existential pain — even when we’ve satisfied our needs, we still suffer from a lack of purpose or meaning, or we grow weary of the endless pursuit of happiness, or even the search for a reason to keep suffering.

When we suffer, we might try to distract ourselves, find meaning in the pain, or, in the worst cases, take our own lives. I like pessimistic philosophy because it offers a different way to look at life. It might not be absolutely true, and I’m not fully aligned with it, but I do wonder whether pessimistic thought resonates more with reality than optimism. Still, reading about pain — how we react to it, how futile it can feel, and what we can do about it — feels like exploring something that optimism might miss.

It hurts to be happy, doesn’t it?

[Fatih · Rating 5 out of 5]

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Prometheus ve Hamlet sorgulamaları kafa açıcı.