Fate in Modernity

Is there such a thing as fate? And if so, does it mean that our lives are inevitably predetermined? Or does it mean that, because of our freedom, we can make choices that tragically lead to our misery and demise? Numerous thinkers in the German tradition have grappled with these questions, and this book unpacks the attendant debates and highlights their relevance to the present. A controversy in eighteenth-century theater serves as the starting point: Are the characters on the modern stage in control of their actions or are they dictated by higher powers? Building on this debate, philosophers of the nineteenth century pondered whether freedom is just another name for the insight into necessity, that is, whether the extent of our freedom is revealed only through instances of fateful adversity. This dialog with tragedy continued into the twentieth century, as disciplines such as psychoanalysis and sociology started to ask how unconscious drives and social entanglements shape our existence. Demonstrating that these cross-disciplinary debates about the vicissitudes of the tragic hero have forever changed the way we think about our capacity for happiness and hope, the book makes the conceptual history of fate resonate with readers today.