Paul Ricœur
We are the same in two ways: by our character, and by keeping our word; the story of our life holds the two together.
Life
Paul Ricœur (1913-2005), born in Valence, taught at Strasbourg, Paris-Nanterre and Chicago. A philosopher of phenomenology and hermeneutics, he studied the voluntary and the involuntary, evil, symbol, narrative and memory. In Oneself as Another (1990) he argues that personal identity lies between character and kept promise, and is told as a story.
Main works
Analyses how freedom is exercised through the body, character and the unconscious.
Reads psychoanalysis as a hermeneutics of hidden meaning.
Shows that narrative gives shape to the experience of time.
Distinguishes two identities, character (idem) and the kept word (ipse).
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceA Protestant believer, he kept his philosophy apart from his faith, which he treated as a conviction rather than a proof.
Ricœur, Soi-même comme un autre (1990)
We reach no absolute certainty about ourselves, only an 'attestation', a trust that can be shaken.
Ricœur, Soi-même comme un autre (1990)
Freedom is real but embodied: we choose within what we did not choose (body, character, unconscious).
Ricœur, Le Volontaire et l'Involontaire (1950)
The ethical aim of a good life among others comes first; moral rules come second and need practical wisdom.
Ricœur, Soi-même comme un autre (1990)