Cover; Dedication; Title; Copyright; Preface; Part I The Insistence Of The Imaginary Introduction: The Mirror Stage; 1: Sentiment and Sensibility; 2: Francis Hutcheson and David Hume; 3: Edmund Burke and Adam Smith; Part II The Sovereignty Of The Symbolic Introduction: The Symbolic Order; 4: Spinoza and the Death of Desire; 5: Kant and the Moral Law; 6: Law and Desire in Measure for Measure; Part III The Reign Of The Real Introduction: Pure Desire; 7: Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche; 8: Fictions of the Real; 9: Levinas, Derrida and Badiou; 10: The Banality of Goodness; Conclusion.;In this major new book, Terry Eagleton, one of the world's greatest cultural theorists, writes with wit, eloquence and clarity on the question of ethics. Providing rare insights into tragedy, politics, literature, morality and religion, Eagleton examines key ethical theories through the framework of Jacques Lacan's categories of the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real, measuring them against the 'richer' ethical resources of socialism and the Judaeo-Christian tradition.a major new book from Terry Eagleton, one of the world's greatest cultural theoristsinvestigates ethical theories from Aristo.