Simon Critchley's 2019 Book about Tragedy's Philosophy and Walter J. Ong's Thought

Abstract

In my 5,200-word review essay, I highlight certain points in Simon Critchley's accessible and thought-provoking new book Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us (Pantheon Books, 2019) and discuss them in connection with Walter J. Ong's thought. Because Critchley refers certain views he learned in his undergraduate studies in the early 1980s, which he started when he was twenty-two, I also refer to certain aspects of my undergraduate studies in the 1960s (1962-1966). In addition to discussing ancient Greek tragedies and comedies, Critchley also discusses ancient Greek thought in Gorgias, Plato and Aristotle -- and later philosophical thought.