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(2012) Action and existence, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Homer's Odysseus was a true hero, or so it seems. Tracking his various adventures, one is struck by the craftiness of this mortal able to outwit and control nature at almost every turn. In the Odyssey, our hero struggles with the wide and unstable expanse of the sea in his journey back from Troy to his native Ithaca. The man who is "never at a loss' employs his cleverness to neutralize any foe he encounters, whether Circe, the Cyclops, or Scylla and Charybdis.1 But, curiously, never in all of his sea faring adventures do we hear of Odysseus engaging in what we would consider a rational analysis of his actions: we never hear him weighing in advance his courses of action by a consideration of the morality or even of the advantages and disadvantages of them.2 His singular purpose is to return to Ithaca.3 When he meets the blind seer Tiresias in Hades — a visit demanded by Circe — Odysseus is told that he will indeed return safely to Ithaca and successfully avenge the suitors of his wife. His resignation is clear and terse: "Oh, Tiresias, surely the gods have spun this out as fate."4 He cannot but obey the indifferent and capricious gods who control his destiny.5
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Full citation:
Swindal, J. (2012). Introduction: action, thought, pragmatism, in Action and existence, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-12.
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