Self-inflicted suffering can be embodied ethical performance rather than punishment

Evidence

Oedipus’ self-inflicted pain should not, I think, be regarded as the outcome of a judgment about his responsibility. It is perhaps best not thought of as “punishment” (a notion that has pretensions to being a reasoned and reasonable action), but as itself the passionate performance of an embodied ethical sensibility. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 463

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Habitual suffering enables interpretive skill and invention beyond immediate need — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 532; Moralistic self-denial weakens and coarsens the capacity for immediate pleasure — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 738; Privileged innocence is purchased at the cost of others’ suffering — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 167 (+3 more)