On October 7, thought came to a standstill. Faced with the horror of the massacres carried out by Hamas and the violence of Israel's retaliation, all nuance has been erased; the world has frozen into binary oppositions – good and evil, black and white – and the sides, in France, Europe and the United States, are pitted against each other without concessions. It is a universal war of declarations of allegiance. People declare themselves either pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli, and argue accordingly like machines, no more, no less.

One thing is certain, however: Anyone who declares themselves to be in favor of one side or the other has not understood a thing about what is going on. We must support the right of Palestinians to a viable and prosperous state, as well as the right of Israelis to live in peace and security in their state. The problem is to consider the two together.

We are witnessing the defeat of the complex thought that French sociologist Edgar Morin advocated for, i.e., a type of thought that acknowledges contradiction, takes reasons and effects into account, and combines reflective distance with universal empathy. Literature can help us think about complexity. "Poetry is more philosophical than history," said Aristotle. Indeed, history speaks only of the specific, whereas fiction is based on general models of understanding.

This is particularly true of ancient Greek literature, which has always sought to reveal the intricacy of human relationships and the entanglement of cause and effect, making it difficult to unequivocally determine a good side versus an evil one. The Iliad holds an almost equal balance between the two opponents who clash beneath the walls of Troy, the Achaeans and the Trojans. The poet's and the reader's compassions alternate between the two.

Distinguishing intentions

The philosopher Hegel also found this thought – that acknowledges contradiction and the equal legitimacy of two opposing rationales – in Sophocles' Antigone: Faced with her uncle Creon, who embodies the "reason of State" (the Machiavellian conception of national interest) and wants to impose civil peace, Antigone defends the imprescriptible rights of familial devotion. The tragic conflict lies precisely in this dual legitimacy of adversaries, which many unfortunately refuse to recognize in today's ongoing war in the Middle East. The Greeks of 2,500 years ago can teach us a lesson in complexity that many of our contemporaries would do well to draw inspiration from.

Another lesson to retain: The distinction between action and intention. The direct cause of the Trojan War, the abduction of Helen by a Trojan prince, can be traced back in extremis to the will of a goddess. In other words, good and evil are not of human origin: They are the fruit of circumstance. Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother without having intended to, even while trying to avoid the crimes prophesied to him. He is finally vindicated by the gods in Sophocles' final tragedy, Oedipus at Colonus. Against an archaic form of justice that only recognizes acts, the whole progression of thought since ancient Greece has called for context and motives to be taken into account.

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