Problems with strangers

In this new exciting book, Terry Eagleton — who is considered one of the greatest cultural theorists — addresses a subject that has recently gained much attention; it is the subject of ethics. In this work, which is filled with rare ideas about tragedy, politics, literature, virtue, and religion, Eagleton explores moral theories, from Aristotle to Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each, and comparing them to the richer moral visions of socialism, Christianity, and Judaism. In an innovative approach, Eagleton classifies the theories he studies according to Jacques Lacan's three psychoanalytic systems — the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real — and explains how this can highlight the advantages and flaws of ethics based on personal empathy, and non-personal ethics based on duty and obligation.