ABSTRACT This article aims to demonstrate that works of art and literature can provide important insights in law and justice that are hard to grasp by one-sidedly rationalist methods of academic analysis. It takes Sophocles’ Antigone – perhaps the most classical text of law and literature’s familiar catalogue – as a case in point, drawing attention to some important aspects of that play’s legal epistemic relevance that are still largely overlooked. Arguing that the widespread view on the confrontation between Antigone and Creon as a clash between ‘divine’ and ‘human’ law is mistaken, the article builds on Hegel’s view that the positions of both protagonists are likewise incomplete, denying elements of law and justice that are equally essential, the one being no less divine than the other. However, it departs from Hegel’s analysis in maintaining that the play does not entail the promise of ‘ethical life’ (Sittlichkeit) as some synthesis that recognizes the specific value of both Antigone’s and Creon’s stances on law and justice but takes away their incompatibility. Instead, it is argued that the play teaches us that such harmonization is unattainable – a no less valuable lesson indeed.

中文翻译：

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Sophocles的Antigone和道德生活的承诺：悲剧性的歧义和理性的病态

摘要本文旨在证明艺术和文学作品可以提供法律和正义方面的重要见解，而这些见解是单方面的理性主义方法无法进行的学术分析。它以Sophocles的《 Antigone》（也许是法律和文学界最熟悉的经典文献中最经典的文本）为例，提请人们注意该剧的法律认识意义的一些重要方面，这些方面仍然被人们忽略了。认为安提戈涅人和克里昂人之间的对抗是“神圣的”法与“人性的”法律之间的冲突的广泛观点是错误的，因此，本文基于黑格尔的观点，即两位主角的立场同样是不完整的，否认了法律和正义的内容。同样重要，一个不比另一个更神圣。然而，它与黑格尔的分析背道而驰，他认为该剧本没有“道德生活”的承诺（Sittlichkeit），因为它综合了一些认识到安提戈涅和克里昂的法律和正义立场的特定价值，但消除了它们的不相容性。取而代之的是，有人认为该剧告诉我们，这种协调是无法实现的，这确实是同样有价值的一课。