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Lacan was deeply interested in [[ethics]]. In one of his essays, "[[Kant ]] avec [[Sade]]" (1962-1963), the attempt to [[construct ]] a rationally coherent [[system ]] of ethics by Kant is discredited by a [[structural ]] analogy with the delirious [[rationality ]] of Sade. It is argued that by attempting to universalized ethics and to establish the criteria for universally binding [[ethical ]] laws which are not dependent on the [[logic ]] of the [[individual ]] [[situation]], Kant merely succeeds in separating pleasurability from the [[notion ]] of [[good]].

An important theme in one of his [[seminars]], ''The Ethics of [[Psychoanalysis]]'' (1959), is the [[desire]] for [[death]]. [[Lacan]] believes that there are two [[death]]s. He suggests that there is a [[difference ]] between [[biology|biological]] [[death]] and [[symbolic]] [[death]]. In [[Sophocle]]'s play, [[Antigone]] is excluded from the [[community]]; in other [[words ]] her [[symbolic]] [[death]] precedes her [[nature|natural]] [[death]]. In [[Shakespeare]]'s play the [[ghost ]] of [[Hamlet]]'s [[father]] represents the opposite [[case]]: [[nature|natural]] [[death]] unaccompanied by [[symbolic]] [[death]]. In the above [[seminar]] [[Lacan]] comments on the [[tragedy]] of [[Antigone]], in a play which clearly expresses [[human]] [[being]]'s relation and debt to the [[death|dead]].

For [[Lacan]], [[Antigone]] is a [[model ]] of [[ethics|ethical conduct]]. But, first, let us remind ourselves of the story. The sons of [[Oedipus]], brothers of [[Antigone]], Eteocles and Polynices, have killed each other in battle. Eteocles was fighting on the side of the [[state]], Thebes, and Polynices was attacking it. The ruler of Thebes, Creon, brother of Jocasta, decrees that the corpse of Eteocles be buried with [[full ]] honors and that the corpse of Polynices be [[left ]] to be rupped apart by dogs and birds. Wilfully disobedient, [[Antigone]] performs the proper funeral rites for Polynices. She takes full [[responsibility ]] for her actions. Creon sentences her to be walled up in a cave with just enough food to relieve his [[guilt ]] for her [[death]]. [[Antigone]] chooses to die: she hangs herself. As a consequence, Creon's son Haemon, fiancé of [[Antigone]], also kills himself, and so does Creon's wife, Eurydice. For having declared himself and the state as mightier than the gods, Creon loses everything.

Creon represents what we could call a strong [[ego]]. He cannot tolerate a defiance of his [[authority]], especially from a [[woman]]. On the other hand, [[Antigone]]'s [[action ]] is [[ethics|ethical]]. She is not in flight from responsibility and is not afraid of [[desire]]. Her [[act]] is disinterested; she does not consider the claims of her [[ego]] for [[happiness]]. She does not procrastinate [[about ]] something she [[knows ]] she must do. [[Antigone]] represents a [[principle ]] of [[ethics|ethical conduct]]: she [[acts ]] according to her [[desire]] and that [[desire]] is the [[desire]] of the [[Other]].