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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
In seven pages this paper examines how Oedipus’s exercise of free will and not fate was responsible for the tragedy that befell himself and his family. Four sources are cited in the bibliography.
Page Count:
7 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGOedipus.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
control over his fate because it has already been preordained. Furthermore, these same thinkers contend that the King of Thebes is little more than a helpless pawn in a
game the gods constructed for their own amusement. But these people are oversimplifying Sophocles message. At the time Oedipus the King was written, the ancient world of gods
and goddesses was giving way to a more enlightened view of man as the center of universe. Fate was no longer being accepted as a foregone conclusion. Rather,
philosophers and dramatists of this period were pondering the extent to which free will was responsible for situation outcomes. While it would be easy to accept the notion that
Oedipus was fated to meet the tragedy described in Sophocles version of the famous myth, there is evidence within the play that points in another direction: that Oedipus and Oedipus
alone was responsible for a demise that was not the result of anything the gods contrived but because of his own actions. Actions that are determined by the individual and
independent of any factors or causes are typically defined as free will. In his text Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul Jonathan Lear describes the knowledge
someone has regarding something already known as knowingness. This is developed by the individual but is also profoundly influenced by the culture of this individual. In Oedipus world,
only the gods were omnipotent and supremely powerful. He wished to exercise a similar power and he could only do this through acts that would ensure the lasting loyalty
and obedience of his subjects. According to Lear, "There is a sickness in this knowingness: reason is being used to jump ahead to a conclusion, as though there is
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