Paul Ricoeur

[Presented at the 52nd Annual Conference of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP), University of Oregon, 24-26 October. Part of the panel Events, Actions and the Problem of Agency in the Wake of Deleuze’s Logic of Sense, organized in collaboration with Sean Bowden and James Williams.] In this paper I will bring the positions of Gilles Deleuze and Paul Ricoeur into proximity with each other in order to draw out points of conflict. I do not aim to solve (...) these conflicts, nor to develop them into a full clash. Rather, I will show that both Ricoeur and Deleuze develop a theory of novelty that can be characterized as a reversal of Platonism. These theories are not opposed per se, but they differ in orientation. Deleuze situates novelty in the virtual event. This virtual event can be understood as a singular point of transition that transforms one system into another. Or to catch the event in a somewhat more concrete image, it is a kind of metamorphosis (in Kafka’s sense). In contrast, Ricoeur situates novelty in human actions that are played out as a fruitful tension between two poles. This tension opens up a field of potentiality in which new ideas and novel meanings can emerge. Ricoeur has analysed this tension on many levels. Its most basic structure can be found in what Ricoeur calls a living metaphor. This living metaphor is itself something ‘in action’; it brings two opposed semantic fields into a fruitful tension with each other. This tension reveals a previously unnoticed proximity between these two semantic fields, without destroying their distance. In this way a new, third semantic field is opened up that is only given in potential. Ricoeur argues that it is within tensions like this that generative differences arise, resulting in new ideas and novel meanings. The main point of divergence between Deleuze and Ricoeur can therefore be framed in two contrasting pairs: virtual event versus human action; point of transition versus tension (or: metamorphosis versus metaphor). (shrink)

The introduction of a term can be a significant event for us. Before we had an experience which we would describe in many words and now we have a term we can use. But if the experience is an age-old one, we are likely to wonder: is there not some term here already? Surely this type of thing has been noticed before, or something very similar. And even if there is no term, what credit should we give to the new (...) term’s maker? The essay focuses on the term “epistemic injustice,” introduced by Miranda Fricker. I am not sure how difficult this term was to introduce: presenting considerations in favour of its being difficult and quite easy. (The consideration in favour of easiness is: there is a social circle who collect scenes from fictions which merit a term and if you are part of the circle, you have access to what they have collected and merely need to introduce a term for one such scene or what goes on within it.) Then I wonder whether Martha Nussbaum stands in a severe relation of epistemic injustice to Bernard Williams: she shares the same aim but writes more because “How do I gain an enduring place otherwise?” The paper opens with a poem about Greta Thunberg, I suppose, and is not. (shrink)

This paper uses Ricoeurian phenomenology to present an account of the reality of educational places such as classrooms. It contends that an “educational place” is where educational events occur, and that classrooms are a specific institutional instantiation of this general category. The position maintains that through the stretching of temporality from an “instant” to an “event” and spatiality from a “space” to a “place,” one finds the conditions for understanding the way that events and places have a reciprocal constitution which (...) allows the crucial movement within education from a merely subjective experience into a fully intersubjective “world.”. (shrink)

Este artículo examina la fenomenología hermenéutica de Paul Ricoeur mediante la noción de arquitectura del sentido, que articula simbólicamente las dimensiones narrativa y práctica del sujeto. Frente a la crisis contemporánea de sentido, se reconstruyen tres momentos centrales: la convergencia entre fenomenología y hermenéutica, el contraste entre los enfoques de Ricoeur y Heidegger, y las implicaciones ontológicas de la comprensión. El análisis subraya la mediación simbólica, la narrativa y la ontología del actuar como ejes fundamentales para construir una hermenéutica crítica (...) del ser-en-el-mundo. Así, el texto ofrece herramientas conceptuales para repensar la subjetividad y enfrentar los desafíos actuales relacionados con la producción de sentido, proponiendo una vía hermenéutica que habilita una praxis filosófica comprometida con la reconfiguración del sujeto contemporáneo. (shrink)

The paper continues the ontomathematical investigation of Postmodernity as involving the third dimension of human experience after Hegel, Marx, and Marxism - Leninism. “Language” instead of “time” or “development” is its new name, which does not call for social revolutions any more. The doctrines of Peirce, Wittgenstein (both “Tractatus” and “Philosophical Investigation”), Heidegger (before and after “die Kehre”), Gadamer’s hermeneutics and its relation to Heidegger’s hermeneutics, Rorty, Derrida, the philosophical interpretation of Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” are considered (...) to search for its “mysterious name”, that of the third dimension of human experience. Ontomathematics allows for them to be reinterpreted as the postmodern introduction of the third dimension of human experience as language, semiotics or “sign”. The conclusion conjectures that mathematics can be reinterpreted as “consistent semiotics” obeying universal Boolean syntax for the two-dimensional space of human experience versus the three-dimensional “generalized mathematics” of semiotics as ontomathematics. The semiotic interpretation of the Gleason and Kochen - Speaker interpretation is involved. (shrink)

The aim of this thesis is to show that a familiar hermeneutical movement from suspicion to affirmation of rational meaning, as a reader reflects on a narrative, is, in part, grounded in the narrative's rhythmic structure which mediates a sonorous condition of being appropriated by the reader. This hermeneutical process involves the reader in appropriating the temporal perspective which creates a 'space' for reflection in which a provisional conceptual unity is made possible, but subject to continuing movement from suspicion to (...) affirmation. It is shown that this relationship between Self and Other is dialectical, and mediated by the textual modes of metaphor and narrative. Particular examples of poetry and prose are examined, and the story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac in the 'Authorised Version' of the Bible is analyzed in detail in an attempt to show how the reader, imaginatively inhabiting the world of the text, is involved in a process in which there is an 'instant' of letting go Self reflection; and there is affirmation of reasonable hope that the narrative may be rationally understood. In an attempt to address the critical issue of validation of rational meaning to show that affirmation may be given reasonable hope, the analogy of juridical legality is examined, particularly with respect to Aristotle's notion of phronesis. The analysis draws upon the hermeneutical philosophy of Paul Ricoeur with particular regard to his theories of metaphor and narrative, and the role of the creative imagination. It also makes use of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's understanding of the lived body in terms of a dialectical relationship between its material objectivity and its phenomenological aspects, especially, with respect to sonorous being and corporeal intentionality. From the discipline of literary criticism, Northrop Frye's notion of prose rhythm in his Anatomy of Criticism is employed to identity this key mediatory characteristic. (shrink)

Ricœur's philosophy of imagination touches on the political question of power (and also the power of‘falsehood’), through the social imagination, ideology and utopia. However, this study focuses on the notion of ‘traditions of the imagination’, which Ricœur very early on linked to the idea of institutions of theimagination, thereby considerably broadening the scope of the institution. In his dialogue with Castoriadis, he shows that we must think about the instituting imagination and the instituted imagination together. Traditions of the imaginary are (...) long-established mediations, particularly in works of art, which convey different styles of traditionality. But the constitution of a tradition is based on the interplay of innovation and sedimentation, and utopian criticism of established representations, which explores other possible configurations, will in turn establish traditionalised configurations. Here we find the terms of a discussion by Claude Lefort, as recounted by Ricœur, on the lack of foundation inherent in democracy: “For him, democracy is the first regime that is based on nothing but itself, that is to say, on emptiness. Hence its extreme fragility. I try to say, for my part, that it is always founded on its own anteriority in relation to itself.” This noncongruence of societies with themselves, which forces them to imagine themselves, is what allows them to resist a total and complete imaginary remodelling. The vibrant plurality of traditions of the imagination, which together co-founded public space and civil society, and the incessant emulsion between the already existing sedimented traditions and the poetic and critical innovation that reopens them and draws new figures from them, are essential to the political life of our societies. (shrink)

Présentation de l'éditrice invitée, Azadeh Thiriez-Arjanji, par les directeurs de la revue, Jean-Luc Amalric et Ernst Wolff.

Presentation of guest editor Azadeh Thiriez-Arjanji by the journal's editors, Jean-Luc Amalric and Ernst Wolff.

In the 1960s Paul Ricoeur coined the phrase “masters of suspicion” to describe Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud for their ability to reveal the hidden or repressed meanings or truths located in texts or social and psychological phenomena. Philosophers, theologians, and literary theorists have subsequently applied the term “master of suspicion,” as well as the associated term “hermeneutics of suspicion,” in manifold ways. The concept has become one of philosophy’s recognizable turns of phrase, an “iconic term” that excites (...) imagination and interest in much the same way as Nietzsche’s ‘death of God.’ Ricoeur identifies four aspects that the masters of suspicion have in common: an engagement with religion; their contestation of the primacy of consciousness in the domain of knowledge, which implies a radical critique of the Cartesian cogito and the exposure of false consciousness; the development of a new method of demystification, or a new way to explain consciousness; the destruction of old myths, which implies simultaneously a rebuilding process towards developing a new, more true understanding of reality, a process that involves a liberation from illusion and the expansion of consciousness. Durkheim’s sociological project contains all of these elements: by showing how individuals are socially constructed, including even their ability for logical thought, his work exposes the falsity of the Cartesian cogito and the idea of the independent and autonomous ego; he develops a new sociological method which seeks to unmask the hidden social processes that determine individual thought and behavior; his sociology destroys old ways of thinking, but simultaneously actively rebuilds a new understanding of reality, and seeks to expand consciousness by highlighting how consciousness is shaped by social processes; his work on religion is an exercise in a hermeneutics of suspicion just as radical as that of the other masters of suspicion. This contribution will explain the ways in which Durkheim is truly a master of suspicion in Ricoeur’s sense, but also seeks to understand why Ricoeur did not mention Durkheim. The contribution will thus explore how Durkheim is relevant for hermeneutics, while also exploring facets of his methodology in new ways. (shrink)

Cet article vise à démontrer que la pensée de P. Ricœur fournit un cadre théorique précieux pour conceptualiser la dialectique entre reconnaissance et compromis comme fondement d’une éthique politique adaptée aux défis du pluralisme dans les sociétés contemporaines. Le compromis peut apaiser les conflits soulevés par les demandes de reconnaissance et fournir des pistes pratiques pour traiter ces différends, tandis que l’impératif de reconnaissance empêche le compromis de dégénérer en simple négociation stratégique et enrichit l’imagination pratique par l’action collective. Une (...) approche ricœurienne de la politique permet d’esquisser une éthique politique fondée sur un “vouloir-vivre-ensemble” et des “institutions justes”, qui reconnaît l’inévitabilité du conflit mais maintient la possibilité d’une existence politique commune. (shrink)

This article aims to show that P. Ricœur’s thought offers a robust theoretical framework for conceptualizing the dialectic between recognition and compromise, serving as foundation for a political ethics suited to the challenges of pluralism in contemporary societies. Compromise serves to mitigate conflicts arising from demands for recognition and to provide practical avenues for solving such disputes, while the imperative of recognition prevents compromise from degenerating into a mere strategic negotiation and enriches the practical imagination necessary for collective action. A (...) Ricoeurian approach to politics enables to sketch out a political ethics grounded both on a “will-to-live-together” and “just institutions,” one that acknowledges the inevitability of conflict but sustains the possibility of shared political existence. (shrink)

Cet article examine la pertinence du concept d’imagination productive chez Paul Ricœur, tel qu’il est développé principalement dans L’Imagination. Cours à l’Université de Chicago (1975) ( Lectures on imagination), pour penser le travail de l’acteur au théâtre. En me concentrant sur les processus de création et d’interprétation des rôles, j’analyse la fonction de l’imagination dans deux méthodes de jeu contrastées : celles de Lee Strasberg et de Michael Chekhov. La distinction établie par Ricœur, d’après Kant, entre imagination reproductive et imagination (...) productive fournit un cadre conceptuel pertinent pour appréhender les diverses modalités d’accès au matériau de jeu par les acteurs : l’imagination n’y est pas seulement liée à la mémoire, mais constitue une capacité de transformation créatrice. Ricœur conçoit une imagination affranchie de la référence à la réalité empirique, ouvrant ainsi la voie à une définition du théâtre comme espace de reconfiguration du réel. L’art dramatique se voit dès lors attribuer une fonction philosophique : il interroge notre perception et notre compréhension du monde, tout en constituant une manière d’augmenter la réalité. (shrink)

In the final chapter of The Course of Recognition, Ricœur proposes a pacified conception of recognition, founded on mutuality rather than reciprocity, and developed through a phenomenology of the gift. Although Derrida is not cited in this chapter, the article shows how the analyses of the two philosophers resonate with each other, through a cross-play between the deconstruction and reconstruction of the gift, conducted in comparison with commercial exchange. Like Derrida, Ricœur reveals the gift as the impossible, marked by its (...) three aporias. But unlike Derrida, he undertakes a complementary reconstructive move that brings to light the practical powers of the gift, along with the dialectic between love and justice that constitutes both its strength and its fragility. (shrink)

The work of Paul Ricœur is animated by an insistent philosophical engagement with the position and orientation of human existence. An integral aspect of Ricœur’s philosophical engagement concerns the relationship between individual existence, as a question of personal identity, and co-existence, as a question of social life. This engagement is shaped by a reflexive interpretation—a hermeneutics—of these aspects of human existence in a manner that has been termed a ‘hermeneutics of the human condition’. The presence of law within the framework (...) of this reflexive interpretation arises through the question of justice, which situates law in relation to both personal identity and human coexistence. The passage from the individual to human co-existence becomes that of the interconnection between responsibility and justice. In this manner, law becomes a domain or region of reflection in and through its connection to morality, ethics, and politics. Law is a distinct, but neither self-contained nor self-sufficient, domain whose distinctiveness is to be considered through its interconnection with these other domains. The position accorded to law is thus the expression of a wider, reflexive reconfiguration of the interrelationship of all these domains. The reconfiguration results from an overarching process of reflexive interpretation that involves the selection of, and interpretative orientation to, the texts which form the material or corpus for this overarching process. It is in this selection and interpretation that the distinctive character of Ricœurian hermeneutics is elaborated, the question of justice raised, and the domain of law accorded its particular position. This initial framework provides the basis and initial orientation for the more specific pathways which the contributions to this special issue trace and develop. These pathways, in their distinct recourse to the corpus of Ricœur’s work, demonstrate the continued pertinence and relevance of its philosophical framework of critical inquiry. (shrink)

In The Course of Recognition, Ricœur criticizes, with the support of Honneth’s reactualization of Hegel’s criticism of Hobbes, the market society. In place of the struggle for survival, he substitutes a moral motivation which humanizes the entire political project. In order to prevent the search for recognition from being insatiable, he englobes it into a gift economy, in order to balance merchant reciprocity with the gratuitousness of agape. By enlarging self-consciousness with the capacity to remember and to promise, Ricœur enables (...) us to think socialization in terms of temporality and Freudian sublimation. Confronted by the resentment of losers as well as the headlong rush of winners, he invites us to reshape our common membership to society by rethinking our European heritage. (shrink)

Cette étude s’appuie sur la philosophie de la technique de Bernard Stiegler pour développer l’herméneutique interculturelle de Paul Ricoeur et la situer dans le domaine de l’architecture. L’horizon d’expérience – compris comme la limite de l’existence humaine – ne se dévoile jamais entièrement, mais s’extériorise partiellement dans des artefacts. Une lecture parallèle de l’idée ricoeurienne du texte comme « fixation du discours « et de l’analyse stieglerienne des objets techniques comme « prothèses de l’humain « élucide ce processus d’extériorisation. La (...) transmission, l’accumulation et l’interconnexion des artefacts constituent un milieu culturel doté d’une certaine autonomie et cohérence interne. Ricœur en offre un exemple dans l’intertextualité de la littérature grecque antique, tandis que Stiegler identifie le « milieu technique « moderne composé de réseaux de machines. L’architecture, considérée comme l’ensemble des artefacts relative à l’environnement bâti dans un milieu culturel, engendre la théorie – suivant les trois figurations de Ricoeur – qui vise à interpréter un milieu culturel donné et à ouvrir de multiples horizons d’expérience. (shrink)

L’idée que les actes et les actions exemplaires constituent des modèles à suivre invite à une réflexion plus approfondie sur le lien entre le bien dont ils témoignent singulièrement et la raison pratique. En attribuant à ces actes et actions une dimension prospective, voire prophétique, à leur pertinence face aux dilemmes et aux crises morales et politiques, je relie la manière dont, dans le jugement réflexif, le cas individuel appelle sa règle à la phronesis. Que seuls les événements, les actes (...) et les vies attestant que le mal est surmonté hic et nunc rouvrent la voie à une affirmation de l’être que nous sommes constitue une pierre de touche essentielle à cet égard. Résister à l’idée que le mal suscite une convocation préserve ainsi l’idée d’humanité en conférant la sanction de la réalité au bien manifesté par des actes, des actions et des vies exemplaires. (shrink)

Introduction to the special issue edited by Azadeh Thiriez-Arjangi.

This text is the transcript of the roundtable held at the Fonds Ricœur in June 2025, on the twentieth anniversary of Paul Ricœur’s death. Myriam Revault d’Allonnes and Michaël Fœssel were interviewed by Jonathan Chalier about one of the key texts in Ricœur’s political philosophy, namely “The Political Paradox,” published in Esprit in 1957. The roundtable gave rise to a wide-ranging discussion of contemporary political issues, while also engaging other thinkers such as Hannah Arendt, Max Weber, and Karl Marx.

Introduction du numéro thématique édité par Azadeh Thiriez-Arjangi.

This article examines contemporary Iran through key categories of Paul Ricœur’s thought, in dialogue with Arendt, Marx, Weber, and Daryush Shayegan. By clarifying the dynamics of violence and the impasses of religious power, I interpret the Islamic Republic in terms of a reign of ideology and an eclipse of utopia,. Through a hermeneutic approach to secularization and mobilizing Shayegan’s account of the “time of distress,” I highlight the historical conditions of ongoing transformations. Finally, I foreground the decisive role of collective (...) responsibility in the possibility of a non-repetitive liberation from political evil. (shrink)

En analysant la reconnaissance en termes de don, Ricœur remet en question le concept de lutte pour la reconnaissance, car le don ne semble pas être quelque chose pour lequel on peut lutter. Mais pourquoi la reconnaissance devrait-elle être conçue en termes de don en premier lieu? Je soutiens que l’analyse de la reconnaissance par Ricœur sous l’angle du don peut être développée à partir des tensions inhérentes au concept de lutte pour la reconnaissance, telles qu’elles apparaissent dans la dialectique (...) du maître et du serviteur chez Hegel. Cette dialectique conduit à la conclusion que l’autre doit être libre afin que sa reconnaissance ait une véritable valeur pour la personne qui la reçoit. L’analyse de Ricœur radicalise cette préoccupation pour la liberté de l’autre en concevant la reconnaissance comme quelque chose que nous recevons sans même l’avoir demandé – à savoir, comme un don. (shrink)

This paper examines current shortcomings of existing legal principles in addressing the immaterial and a-territorial nature of blockchain technology, which challenges foundational legal concepts such as sovereignty and territoriality. It explores how blockchain’s operational framework disrupts traditional legal discourse, particularly in the realm of Private International Law. Specifcally, the analysis focuses on the inadequacies of the lex situs principle when applied to crypto assets and blockchain networks. Established legal categories struggle to accommodate inherently digital assets like Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), which (...) defy territory-based classifcations within Private International Law. To address these challenges, the paper proposes integrating Ricœur’s theories on narration as a means of reconciling legal discourse with blockchain technologies. By viewing legal principles through the lens of narrative structures, this approach suggests two complementary solutions: incorporating token ecologies into the existing legal framework or reimagining a token-centric legal order. Methodologically, the argument draws on Ricœur’s concept of triple mimesis, demonstrating how established legal principles can be adapted to the digital landscape through a narrative-driven perspective. (shrink)

In this paper the author considers the problem of the act of reading in Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy. Distinguishing between the methodological level and the speculative level of this problem, it first discusses the method and style of Ricoeur’s philosophising. This can be summarised through the frame of a critical hermeneutics and, subsequently, of the philosophical fulcrum, centred on the hermeneutic–anthropological dimension and on the concept of narrative identity. The main thesis is that the ultimate justification of Ricoeur’s literary choices and (...) his way of approaching texts and the act of reading are justified by his specific vision of the human being. Philosophical hermeneutics can lead to profile and deepen this vision. (shrink)

This article argues that Science Fiction, as a genre structured by technological metaphor and utopian displacement, exposes key limitations in Paul Ricœur’s hermeneutics of narrative fiction. While Ricœur famously insists on a genre-agnostic theory of narrative configuration, his own interpretive practice privileges works with genre-specific formal challenges—particularly “tales about time.” Drawing on Ricœur’s theories of utopia, productive imagination, and the mimetic arc, I propose that Science Fiction serves as a paradigmatic genre for understanding how fictional narratives operate as ethical laboratories. (...) The paper unfolds in two parts: first, I construct a Ricœurian theory of Science Fiction by placing his treatment of utopia and ideology in dialogue with theorists such as Suvin and Jameson, arguing that Science Fiction’s cognitive estrangement and futural form demand a genre-sensitive extension of Ricœur’s model. In the second part, I analyze how technological metaphors function as productive frameworks in two exemplary texts. William Gibson’s _Neuromancer_ deploys the metaphor of cyberspace to dramatize the refiguration of subjectivity within digital imaginaries, while Octavia Butler’s _Xenogenesis_ trilogy reconfigures the narrative of human origin through speculative biotechnology and posthuman kinship. Across these readings, I suggest that Science Fiction not only aligns with Ricœur’s understanding of narrative as a site of ethical redescription, but also compels a revision of his framework by foregrounding genre as a structuring force in the symbolic life of fiction. (shrink)

Prenant comme point de départ la théorisation ricœurienne de l’acte de lecture dans Temps et récit et son insistance sur la lacune essentielle du texte littéraire constitutive de l’espace même de la lecture, cet article propose un exercice de lecture appliqué à cette même œuvre. À travers une analyse des procédés d’écriture et des protocoles de lecture à l’œuvre dans l’ouvrage, il tente dans un premier temps de dire en quoi Temps et récit est susceptible d’affecter le régime de la (...) parole philosophique. Puis, dans un second temps, il essaie d’évaluer dans quelle mesure l’écriture de Temps et récit est impliquée dans les propositions avancées par Ricœur concernant le temps, l’écriture de la philosophie et la lecture des textes – qu’ils soient de philosophie ou de théorie littéraire. (shrink)

Disabled by chasing curricular criteria (required for accreditation and professional registration), architecture schools are mostly compliance and reproduction machines serving the building industry. As a corrective, Recoding Architecture Pedagogy: Insurgency and Invention asserts disciplinary knowledge over professional skills as the proper aim and focus of architecture education. The insurgent pedagogy introduced subverts architecture and its teaching’s capture by capitalism’s dominant modes of production and consumption to reveal unexpected tactics for enlarging possibilities. Grounded in architecture histories and theories, philosophy, and anarchism’s (...) emphasis on use and dissensus, combined with PUNK’s DIY ethos, design studio emphasis on technicity is upended to reveal the subversive aim of intensifying tensions between (doomed) desires for artistic autonomy and (intrinsic) burdens of use constituting architecture as a discipline, instead of seeking resolution, some neutral middle ground, or escape into banal practice or paper palaces. By concentrating on what architecture education suppresses (tensions), disavows (its capture within the building industry), or affirms (commercial practice over disciplinary knowledge), Recoding Architecture Pedagogy: Insurgency and Invention cracks open horizons of possibility by showing how intensifying agonistic relationships between the myriad binaries that characterize architecture and its teaching is generative, in ways conciliatory synthesis, cathartic resolution, and uncritical affirmation are not. (shrink)

There is no doubt that for Ricoeur, reading is not an unthought-of act; on the contrary, it is part of his philosophical reflection. Whether it is because he reads the texts of other philosophers, commenting on them extensively, quoting them, or asserting that these texts are fundamental philosophical references to him, whether it is because he quotes, studies or comments on a wide range of extra-philosophical texts, including scientific, logical, linguistic, structuralist or literary-theoretical works, or whether it is because he (...) himself interprets literary works and biblical or theological texts, it is easy to agree that Ricoeur has developed a conscious and intensive reading practice in his writings. The first impression left by his style is that of a thinker who favors dialogue and values intersubjectivity. Better still: could we not say that his need to feed off the texts of others bears witness to an ever-growing demand for himself to invent the creative conceptual means likely to mark his own singularity? What we are saying, in any case, is that for Ricoeur, the activity of reading is much more about sharing his readings with his own readers than about a reductive fidelity to the source text. And to be able to honor the virtue of sharing, we may have to start by avoiding all the traps of authority, especially the one into which a canonical text read by a philosopher too sure of his own reading could lead us. (shrink)

Il n’y a pas de doute que lire n’est pas pour Ricœur un acte impensé, mais fait partie au contraire de sa réflexion philosophique. Que ce soit parce qu’il lit les textes d’autres philosophes, en les commentant abondamment, en les citant ou en affirmant que ces textes sont, pour lui, des références philosophiques fondamentales, que ce soit parce qu’il cite, étudie ou commente un large éventail de textes extra-philosophiques, notamment des travaux scientifiques, logiques, linguistiques, structuralistes ou théorico-littéraires, ou parce qu’il (...) interprète lui-même des œuvres littéraires et des textes bibliques ou théologiques, Ricœur, chacun peut l’accorder facilement, a développé une pratique aussi consciente qu’intensive de la lecture. La première impression laissée par son style est celle d’un penseur qui privilégie le dialogue et valorise l’intersubjectivité. Mieux encore : ne pourrait-on pas dire que, chez lui, le besoin de se nourrir des textes d’autrui témoigne d’une exigence toujours grandissante à l’égard de soi-même quant à l’invention des moyens conceptuels créatifs susceptibles de marquer sa propre singularité? Chez Ricœur, l’activité de la lecture est bien davantage du côté du partage avec ses propres lecteurs que du côté d’une fidélité réductrice au texte source. Pour être en mesure d’honorer la vertu du partage, il faut peut-être commencer par déjouer tous les pièges de l’autorité, surtout celui dans lequel un texte canonique lu par un philosophe trop sûr de sa propre lecture pourrait nous faire tomber. (shrink)

Cet article examinera le lien que Paul Ricœur a établi entre l’expérience de la lecture et le statut de l’être-soi (ipséité). Sans négliger la définition herméneutique et narrative du soi, je me concentrerai sur les aspects phénoménologiques et existentiels de cette corrélation. Premièrement, je montrerai que la manière dont Ricœur conçoit l’effet de la fiction sur l’identité est tributaire des concepts phénoménologiques, et également des théories phénoménologiques de la lecture. Deuxièmement, je soutiendrai que certains aspects phénoménologiques que Ricœur attribue à (...) la lecture – en particulier sa nature incarnée et temporelle – peuvent être rapportés à l’ancrage phénoménologique du soi par rapport aux expériences fictionnelles. Enfin, j’examinerai la lecture que Ricœur propose de L’Homme sans qualités de Robert Musil, à la lumière de la nature hybride de l’imagination fictionnelle. J’analyserai comment, en rapport avec la nature dialectique de l’imagination narrative, des fictions telles que celle de Musil introduisent un changement catégoriel radical dans le discours philosophique sur l’identité, tout en restant ancrées dans les dimensions phénoménologiques et existentielles de l’expérience fictionnelle. (shrink)

This paper builds upon recent work in narrative theory and the philosophy of technology by examining the place of transparency and responsibility in discussions of AI, and what some of the implications of this might be for thinking ethically about AI and especially AI practices, that is, the structured social activities implicating and defining what AI is. In this paper, we aim to show how pursuing a narrative understanding of technology and AI can support knowledge of process and practice through (...) transparency, as well help summon us to responsibility through visions of possibility and of actual harms arising from AI practices. We provide reflections on the relations between narrative, transparency and responsibility, building an argument that narratives (about AI, practices, and those persons implicated in its design, implementation, and deployment) support the kind of knowing and understanding that is the aim of transparency, and, moreover, that such knowledge supports responsibility in informing agents and activating responsibility through creating knowledge about something that can and should be responded to. Furthermore, we argue for considering an expansion of the kinds of practices that we might legitimately consider ‘AI practices’ given the diverse set of (often materially embedded) activities that sustain and are sustained by AI that link directly to its ethical acceptability and which are rendered transparent in the narrative mode. Finally, we argue for an expansion of narratives and narrative sources to be considered in questions of AI, understanding that transparency is multi-faceted and found in stories from diverse sources and people. (shrink)

More than 700 alphabetically organized entries by an international team of contributors provide a fascinating survey of French culture post 1945. Entries include: * advertising * Beur cinema * Coco Chanel * decolonization * écriture feminine * football * francophone press * gay activism * Seuil * youth culture Entries range from short factual/biographical pieces to longer overview articles. All are extensively cross-referenced and longer entries are 'facts-fronted' so important information is clear at a glance. It includes a thematic contents (...) list, extensive index and suggestions for further reading. The Encyclopedia will provide hours of enjoyable browsing for all francophiles, and essential cultural context for students of French, Modern History, Comparative European Studies and Cultural Studies. (shrink)

The experience of the unheimlich, interpreted by Paul Ricoeur as the sense of otherness in a space, is indescribable in terms of the classic description of home. To generate a new perspective to overcome this “blocked situation,” we reflect on a “heterotopology of home,” i.e., a description of Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia (an “other space”) as a metaphor for home. After considering heterotopia as a fluid concept that allows “displacement” to the new situation of home, a heterotopology of home (...) is described by summarizing and analyzing the multitude of past readings of home as heterotopia through Hilde Heynen’s framework. A reflection on the heterotopology of home reinterprets the experience of the heimlich and understanding of selfhood in relation to the unheimlich, as exemplified through Mariana Ortega’s accounts of “hometactics” and “multiplicitous selves” and Georg Simmel’s notion of “the stranger.” In conclusion, we argue that a Foucauldian heterotopology of home overcomes the blocked situation by transforming the perception of home: the experience of the unheimlich becomes describable in the terms of home as heterotopia. In this process, the instances of heterotopia are extended from “other spaces” to spaces of everyday life, also transforming the previous description of heterotopia. (shrink)

Cet article propose une réflexion sur la mémoire critique à partir d’œuvres d’art créées dans un contexte politique autoritaire. En analysant des œuvres « anti-autoritaires », cet article pose la question suivante : comment la réflexion de Paul Ricœur sur la mémoire aide-t-elle à réfléchir sur ces œuvres qui se réapproprient des symboles nationaux pour dénoncer la manipulation du passé? La situation politique du Brésil combine abus de violence et oublis en raison de son passé dictatorial et d’une amnistie dépourvue (...) de mémoire et de justice. Les œuvres d’art contribuent à établir une relation entre mémoire personnelle et mémoire collective : on peut souligner leur fonction critique de dénonciation et de témoignage. La dimension politique et festive des œuvres que nous analyserons met en lumière la manipulation de la mémoire au Brésil. (shrink)

In this paper, I try understanding what Husserlian transcendental phenomenology and Ricoeurian hermeneutical narrative identity can say to each other: are these two approaches – as suggested so far – opposite, or can they dialogue in some way? Is there something as a transcendental phenomenology of the (narrative) existence? I inquiry this topic by tackling B. Zannoni's "I miei stupidi intenti" (Sellerio, 2021), a novel about the flow of existence, where we can see all of its fractures, dilemmas, and rearticulations.

This paper responds to Edward Said’s criticism that Ricoeur’s philosophy takes insufficient account of “worldliness.” Rather than simply defend Ricoeur, I take Said’s criticism as a challenge to consolidate resources in Ricoeur’s philosophy that might be useful to non-specialists skeptical of its social theoretical relevance. First, I summarize Said’s critique of Ricoeur and formulate the enduring challenge I take from it. Second, I turn to Ricoeur’s model of the threefold mimesis of action in relation to both time and space and (...) propose that the capabilities of narrating and building he identifies should be subsumed under the more general capacity of _designing_. Third, I turn to Ernst Wolff’s interpretative social theory of the “technicity” of action, which I argue that is the most productive way of conceptualizing the central role of material (or technical) circumstances in Ricoeur’s work. Finally, to alleviate Said’s concern I suggest that Michel de Certeau’s distinction between strategies and tactics is useful for emphasizing the inherent asymmetry between actors and their technical circumstances without committing to Said’s exaggerated conclusion that this asymmetry is constitutively oppressive. (shrink)

The following essay evaluates the concept of the trace within extended mind (EM) theory. It begins by differentiating Andy Clark’s complementarity from several competing models. Second, it demonstrates how an undeveloped concept of the trace arises in Clark’s debate with internalist critics. In response, I introduce Paul Ricoeur’s metaphor of the imprint in Memory, History, Forgetting. Fourth, the recent debate about the plastic trace will be applied in this context. In so doing, the legacy of Jacques Derrida will be rehabilitated. (...) I conclude with EM’s renewed promise to model deliberations between religiously diverse people. (shrink)

In twentieth-century France, the word “metaphysics” had connotations of closed systems which claimed certainty for themselves. As a result, few dared to engage in metaphysical speculation. Ricœur, however, rejected this prevalent definition because he believed it came from Heidegger’s procrustean reading of the history of philosophy. While agreeing that certainty and closure were neither desirable nor possible, Ricœur did make metaphysical claims. Following Jaspers’s revival of pre-modern apophatic metaphysics for which transcendence cannot be comprehended, Ricœur, in his early work, argued (...) for “critical realism” against neo-Kantian idealism, “original affirmation” against Sartrean negativity, and the “metaphysical choice” of human freedom’s consent to the unchosen features of reality. (shrink)

It is about analyzing the connection between just memory, narration and art, using an approach that mixes philosophy and visual arts. We will start from the perspective of the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur on fair memory, presented in his work Memory, History, Oblivion (2000), according to which there is an institutionalized ideologization of memory in which narrations are silenced or distorted by the so-called official history. In the process of recovering fair memory, these narratives need to be heard, recognized and (...) valued, deconstructing abusive mechanisms that silence them with the aim of producing oblivion or that manipulate them involve distorting the facts to benefit hegemonic discourses. Next, we will discuss how the myth of Brazilian racial democracy is an example of institutionalized ideologization of memory, considering mainly the reflections of Brazilian philosophy Sueli Carneiro in Device of raciality (2023). Finally, we will show how Elian Almeida's pictorial counter-narratives, especially the Vogue series (2020), work to strengthen and disseminate unofficial narratives about Brazil that have been suffocated by official history. (shrink)

El propósito del trabajo es comparar las trayectorias filosóficas de Paul Ricoeur y Mario Presas. Se sostiene que una adecuada comprensión del giro de la fenomenología a la hermenéutica, en el cual ubicamos a ambos, implica poner en relieve su pertenencia inicial a la fenomenología existencial francesa de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Se precisará la denominación fenomenología existencial y el impacto que tuvo en la concepción de la hermenéutica que fue desarrollada a partir de ella. Para concluir, proponemos (...) una periodización de la producción de Presas en relación con su lectura de la obra de Ricoeur. (shrink)

Recent literature regarding how Ricoeur’s work relates to the philosophy of technology appears prima facie to be contradictory. In one established interpretation, Ricoeur’s contributions are merely indirect as he did not engage with the empirical turn of the discipline in the 1980s and maintained a suspicious view of technology based on a profound concern with the distinction between persons and things. In this view, Ricoeur’s work does not add anything new to the discipline but is still valuable to the philosophy (...) of technology through other features of his corpus, such as his critical hermeneutics and narrative theory. In another interpretative approach, some argue Ricoeur adds to the field by directly thematizing technology when studying ethics and human capability–he cannot be thought of as merely ignoring the complex relationship between the social sphere and technology. The present paper offers a dialectical analysis of these interpretative approaches and argues that these positions are not mutually exclusive, but rather capture complementary aspects about the nature of Ricoeur’s hermeneutic and political projects. At one level, Ricoeur engages with core themes of philosophy of technology by exploring the ambiguity of specific technologies and techniques and their implications to social, cultural, and political spheres; in doing so, Ricoeur contributes directly to the field by avoiding the reduction of meaning into merely technical questions. On the other hand, it is also true that Ricoeur, particularly in the main thematic areas of his great works since the 1970s, has not been directly involved with specific questions of how different recent technologies are intertwined with social, political, and ethical aspects, and his emphasis against a reductionist type of technical mentality distanced him from a closer engagement with specific technological issues. In this sense, most of his contributions to the philosophy of technology are indirect. Nevertheless, this paper wants to emphasize that this dialectic analysis invites us to recognize the richness and potential of Ricoeur’s thought to understand how technologies are shaping our experiences in the world. The recently published volume Interpreting Technology, edited by Wessel Reijers, Alberto Romele, and Mark Coeckelbergh, is a powerful example of such potential. (shrink)

Cet article reformule et approfondit la distinction de Ricœur entre douleur et souffrance dans les termes de la philosophie de l’esprit contemporaine pour qu’elle puisse ultérieurement y être discutée dans le débat existant sur la douleur. Douleur et souffrance sont distinguées, par leurs dimensions évaluatives respectives, donc en termes d’intentionnalité, ainsi que par leurs fonctions, à partir de la façon dont Ricœur caractérise les effets propres de la souffrance sur l’activité mentale et la conduite. Notre lecture suggère que la douleur (...) évalue le caractère dommageable d’un état corporel ou d’une situation, tandis que la souffrance évalue le caractère à première vue injustifiable du mal subi. La première a une fonction pratique, nous motiver à nous préserver de ce qui nous porte atteinte, tandis que la seconde a une fonction épistémique, nous motiver à nous interroger sur l’imputation morale du mal subi et sur les raisons qui pourraient le justifier. (shrink)

Le Quichotte de Cervantès occupe une place singulière dans l’histoire de la traduction littéraire en langue française, au moins parce qu’il a fait l’objet d’incessantes retraductions. Mais l’ouvrage retient l’attention parce que la traduction y est thématisée pour elle-même en deux endroits. Cervantès, en jouant avec les codes du roman de chevalerie, pose le cadre général d’une réflexion théorique sur la traduction dont on cherchera ici à souligner les principales tensions constitutives. En intériorisant ses propres origines fictives et traductives, dans (...) un intermède à cheval entre les chapitres viii et ix, le Quichotte évoque à la fois l’idée d’une traduction impossible, mais aussi celle de la traduction comme une modalité particulière de lecture où s’origine la littérature moderne comme quasi-monde (Ricœur) propice aux échanges textuels. Il s’agira finalement de montrer que, ce faisant, Cervantès fait signe à la fois vers le structuralisme et la tradition herméneutique, et leur articulation problématique. (shrink)