View source for Biography:Paul Ricœur

{{short description|French philosopher (1913–2005)}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region           = [[Philosophy:Western philosophy|Western philosophy]]
|era              = [[Philosophy:20th-century philosophy|20th-century philosophy]]
|image            = Paul_Ricoeur_Balzan.png
|caption          = Ricœur, {{circa|1999}}
|name             = Paul Ricœur
|birth_name       = Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur
|birth_date       = 27 February 1913
|birth_place      = Valence, Drôme, France
|death_date       = {{death date and age |2005|5|20|1913|2|27|df=y}}
|death_place      = Châtenay-Malabry, Hauts-de-Seine, France
|spouse           = {{marriage|Simone Lejas|1935|1998|end=died}}<ref>{{ill|Marcelino Agís Villaverde|gl}}, ''Knowledge and Practical Reason: Paul Ricoeur's Way of Thinking'', LIT Verlag Münster, 2012, p. 20.</ref>
|education        = {{unbulleted list | University of Rennes (B.A., 1932) | [[Organization:University of Paris|University of Paris]] (M.A., 1934)}}
|institutions     = {{unbulleted list | [[Organization:University of Paris|University of Paris]] | [[Organization:University of Chicago|University of Chicago]]}}
|school_tradition = [[Philosophy:Continental philosophy|Continental philosophy]]<br />Hermeneutic phenomenology<ref>[[Biography:Don Ihde|Don Ihde]], ''Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur'', Northwestern University Press, 1971, p. 198.</ref><br />[[Social:Psychoanalysis|Psychoanalysis]]<br />[[Religion:Christian theology|Christian theology]]<br />[[Philosophy:Christian existentialism|Christian existentialism]]
|main_interests   = [[Philosophy:Phenomenology|Phenomenology]]<br />[[Philosophy:Hermeneutics|Hermeneutics]]<br />Philosophy of action<br />Moral philosophy<br />[[Philosophy:Political philosophy|Political philosophy]]<br />[[Philosophy:Philosophy of language|Philosophy of language]]<br />[[Philosophy:Personal identity|Personal identity]]<br />Narrative identity<br />[[History:Historiography|Historiography]]<br />[[Philosophy:Literary criticism|Literary criticism]]<br />[[Philosophy:Ancient philosophy|Ancient philosophy]]
|notable_ideas    = Psychoanalysis as a [[Philosophy:Hermeneutics|hermeneutics]] of the Subject, theory of metaphor, metaphors as having "split references" (one side referring to something not antecedently accessible to language),{{Efn | Ricœur borrowed the term "split reference" from [[Biography:Roman Jakobson|Roman Jakobson]].<ref>P. Ricœur, ''The Rule of Metaphor: The Creation of Meaning in Language'', Routledge, 2003, pp. 5, 265ff., 362ff.</ref>}}<ref>Carl R. Hausman, ''Metaphor and Art: Interactionism and Reference in the Verbal and Nonverbal Arts'', CUP Archive, 1989, pp. 105–6; Kaplan 2003, pp. 48–9.</ref> [[Structuralism#Interpretations and general criticisms|criticism of structuralism]], productive [[Imagination|imagination]], [[Social:Imaginary (sociology)|social imaginary]],<ref>Ricœur, P., "L'imagination dans le disocurs et dans l'action", in Ricœur, P., ''Du texte à l'action. Essais d'herméneutique II'', Paris, Seuil (translated as "Imagination in Discourse and in Action," in Ricoeur, P., ''From Text to Action'', Blamey K and Thompson J (trans.), Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois).</ref> the "school of suspicion" in philosophy
|notable_students       = {{unbulleted list | [[Biography:François Laruelle|François Laruelle]] | Georges Zenati}}
|influences       = [[Biography:Edmund Husserl|Husserl]]{{·}} [[Biography:Karl Jaspers|Jaspers]]{{·}} [[Biography:Gabriel Marcel|Marcel]]{{·}} [[Biography:Hans-Georg Gadamer|Gadamer]]{{·}} [[Biography:Immanuel Kant|Kant]]{{·}} [[Biography:Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]]{{·}}  [[Biography:Emmanuel Levinas|Levinas]]<ref name="FL 417"/>{{·}} [[Biography:Roman Jakobson|Jakobson]]{{·}} [[Biography:Émile Benveniste|Benveniste]]<ref>Aya Ono, "Le parcours du sens : Ricœur et Benveniste", ''Semiotica'', vol. 168 (1/4), International Association for Semiotic Studies, 2008.</ref>{{·}}  [[Biography:Emmanuel Mounier|Mounier]]<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Sawchenko |first=Leslie Diane |year=2013 |title=The Contributions of Gabriel Marcel and Emmanuel Mounier to the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur |degree=MA |location=Calgary, Alberta |publisher=University of Calgary |page=ii |doi=10.11575/PRISM/28033 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
|influenced       = [[Biography:Jacques Derrida|Jacques Derrida]]{{·}} [[Biography:Enrique Dussel|Enrique Dussel]]{{·}} [[Biography:Richard Kearney|Richard Kearney]]{{·}} [[Biography:Cornelius Castoriadis|Cornelius Castoriadis]]{{·}} [[Biography:Don Ihde|Don Ihde]]{{·}}[[Biography:Michel Henry|Michel Henry]]
{{·}}Emmanuel Macron{{·}}[[Biography:Kevin Vanhoozer|Kevin Vanhoozer]]
}}

'''Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur''' ({{IPAc-en|r|ɪ|ˈ|k|ɜr}}; {{IPA-fr|ʁikœʁ|lang}}; 27 February 1913&nbsp;– 20 May 2005) was a French [[Philosophy:Philosophy|philosopher]] best known for combining [[Philosophy:Phenomenology|phenomenological]] description with [[Philosophy:Hermeneutics|hermeneutics]]. As such, his thought is within the same tradition as other major hermeneutic phenomenologists, [[Biography:Martin Heidegger|Martin Heidegger]], [[Biography:Hans-Georg Gadamer|Hans-Georg Gadamer]], and [[Biography:Gabriel Marcel|Gabriel Marcel]]. In 2000, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for having "revolutionized the methods of hermeneutic phenomenology, expanding the study of textual interpretation to include the broad yet concrete domains of mythology, biblical [[Religion:Exegesis|exegesis]], psychoanalysis, theory of metaphor, and narrative theory."<ref>{{cite web |title=Paul Ricœur |url=http://www.inamori-f.or.jp/laureates/k16_c_paul/prf_e.html |publisher=Inamori Foundation |access-date=15 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523172410/http://www.inamori-f.or.jp/laureates/k16_c_paul/prf_e.html |archive-date=23 May 2013 }}</ref>

==Life==
===1913–1945: Birth to war years===
Paul Ricœur was born in 1913 in Valence, Drôme, [[Place:French Third Republic|France]], to Léon "Jules" Ricœur (23 December 1881 – 26 September 1915) and Florentine Favre (17 September 1878 – 3 October 1913),<ref name="Enc">''Encyclopedia of World Biography: 20th century supplement'', vol. 13, J. Heraty, 1987: [http://biography.yourdictionary.com/paul-ricoeur "Paul Ricoeur"].</ref> who were married on 30 December 1910 in Lyon.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://huguenots-france.org/france/celebrites/ricoeur/pag0.htm#19|title=Pages de données|website=huguenots-france.org|access-date=24 April 2017|archive-date=24 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424180701/https://huguenots-france.org/france/celebrites/ricoeur/pag0.htm#19|url-status=dead}}</ref> He came from a family of devout Huguenots (French Reformed Protestants), a religious minority in France.<ref>In 2016 he declared to be 
[[Religion:Protestantism|Protestant]]. Cf. {{cite web|url=https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/paul-ricoeur-je-ne-suis-pas-un-philosophe-protestant-3186244|date=13 January 2016|publisher=Radio France|language=fr|title=Paul Ricœur : "Je ne suis pas un philosophe protestant"|quote=Je suis irrité lorsqu’on me présente comme philosophe protestant, je suis philosophe et protestant}}</ref>
Paul's father Jules, who served as a sergeant in the 75th Infantry Regiment of the French army during [[Social:World War I|World War I]], went missing in Perthes-lès-Hurlus near the beginning of the Second Battle of Champagne (25 September – 6 November 1915). On 26 September 1915, French military authorities declared that Jules had probably been killed in the battle. His body was not found until 1932, when a field was being ploughed, and the body was identified by its tags.<ref>Paul Ricoeur – ''La critique et la conviction: entretien avec François Azouvi et Marc de Launay'' (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1995), p. 11.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Munkholt |first=Cherine Marie Veronique |date=2016-04-16 |title=On an impact of WWI |url=https://craftinghistoryblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/16/on-an-impact-of-wwi/ |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=craftinghistoryblog |language=en}}</ref> Some writers have stated that before World War I began, Paul's father (Léon "Jules" Ricœur) was a professor of English at the Lycée Emile Loubet in Valence. However, it was a different person (Jules Paul Ricœur (1887–1918)) who held that position.<ref>Jules Paul Ricoeur (April 28, 1887 – November 7, 1918) was a son of Paul Lucien Auguste Ricoeur (a.k.a. Paul Lucien Augustin Ricoeur) and Elisabeth "Mina" Elzer, who were married on 4 December 1886 in Poussay. Jules was born in Montbéliard, Doubs, and died from gas poisoning in World War I at Baccarat, Meurthe-en-Moselle. He was a Private in the 356th Infantry Regiment (2nd Class) of the French army. Before fighting in World War I he was a professor of English in the Lycée Emile Loubet in Valence. He had a brother named Louis Charles Adrien Ricoeur (1 October 1889 – 20 August 1914) who was born in Épinal, Vosges. Louis was a Private in the 153rd Infantry Regiment of the French army. He was killed in WWI in 1914 at Morhange, Moselle.</ref><ref>[http://hgec2638.fr/lionel/apht/carnet_poilu/loubet/loubet.html "La Guerre et le lycée Loubet" (The War and Lycée Loubet)] – These are photos of commemorative plaques in the entrance hall of the Lycée Emile Loubet in Valence. The lycée started operating and enrolling students about 1904. The plaques list all the professors and students from the lycée who died in various wars (including WWI and WWII) in which France was involved. Scroll down the page to the chart which is titled "Ancien Professeurs" (Former Professors) in the upper left-hand corner of the chart. At the bottom of the chart, there is information on Jules Paul Ricœur (1887–1918), who was not the same person as Paul Ricœur's father Léon "Jules" Ricœur (1881–1915).</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://memorialgenweb.org/memorial3/html/fr/complementter.php?id=5162558|title=MémorialGenWeb Fiche individuelle|website=memorialgenweb.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.memorialgenweb.org/mobile/fr/complementter.php?id=5077987&largeur=1600&hauteur=900|title=MémorialGenWeb – Ricoeur, Louis Charles Adrien (1889–1914)|access-date=26 April 2017|archive-date=27 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427101602/http://www.memorialgenweb.org/mobile/fr/complementter.php?id=5077987&largeur=1600&hauteur=900|url-status=dead}}</ref> Paul's father's death occurred when Paul was only two years old. Subsequently, Paul was raised in Rennes, France by his paternal grandparents Louis Ricœur (1856–1932) and his wife Marie Sarradet (1856–1928), and by his father's sister Juliette "Adèle" Ricœur (20 December 1892 – 1968),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://huguenots-france.org/france/celebrites/ricoeur/pag1.htm#16|title=Pages de données|website=huguenots-france.org|access-date=24 April 2017|archive-date=18 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018081659/https://huguenots-france.org/france/celebrites/ricoeur/pag1.htm#16|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Paul Ricoeur – ''La critique et la conviction: entretien avec François Azouvi et Marc de Launay'' (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1995), p. 14.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/29915352|title=Recognition, Reciprocity and Representation: Background presentation to a discussion of 3 Ricoeur texts|first=Cherine|last=Munkholt|via=www.academia.edu}}</ref> with a small [[Finance:Stipend|stipend]] afforded to Paul as a war orphan.

Paul, whose penchant for study was fueled by his family's Protestant emphasis on Bible study, was bookish and intellectually precocious. He discovered philosophy while attending the Lycée de Rennes (now {{Interlanguage link multi|Lycée Émile-Zola de Rennes|fr}}), where he studied under Roland Dalbiez (1893–1976), who was professor of philosophy at the lycée.<ref>Marcelino Agís Villaverde, ''Knowledge and Practical Reason: Paul Ricoeur's Way of Thinking'', LIT Verlag Münster, 2012, p. 18.</ref> Ricœur received his bachelor's degree in 1932 from the University of Rennes<ref name="Enc"/> and began studying philosophy, and especially phenomenology, at the [[Organization:University of Paris|Sorbonne]] in 1933–34, where he was influenced by [[Biography:Gabriel Marcel|Gabriel Marcel]].<ref name="FL 417">Michaël Fœssel and Fabien Lamouche, ''Paul Ricœur. Anthologie'' (Paris, Éditions Points, 2007), p. 417.</ref> When Ricoeur was in [[Place:Paris|Paris]], he attended the Friday gatherings held by this philosopher who introduced him to [[Biography:Edmund Husserl|Edmund Husserl]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/john-w-kluge-center/kluge-prize/past-winners/item/n79056642/paul-ricoeur-1913-2005/|title=Paul Ricoeur}}</ref> During those "meetings" students, professors, intellectuals would gather for several hours of lively discussion.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fondsricoeur.ehess.fr/english-overview/biography-paul-ricoeur-0|title=Biography of Paul Ricoeur}}</ref> Among them there were: Merleau-Ponty, [[Biography:Emmanuel Levinas|Emmanuel Levinas]], [[Biography:Luigi Pareyson|Luigi Pareyson]], [[Biography:Nikolai Berdyaev|Nikolai Berdyaev]], [[Philosophy:Paul-Louis Landsberg|Paul-Louis Landsberg]], and Sartre.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.avvenire.it/amp/agora/pagine/dalla-fenomenologia-all-ermeneutica-cosi-ricoeur-sposo-la-causa-esistenziale|title=Dalla fenomenologia l'ermeneutica: così Ricoeur sposò la causa esistenziale|publisher=L'Avvenire`language=it}}</ref> Ricoeur also joined the ''Esprit'' magazine, which had been founded in 1932 by [[Biography:Emmanuel Mounier|Emmanuel Mounier]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/paul-ricoeur-1913-2005-2/|title=Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005)}}</ref>

In 1934 he completed a DES thesis (''{{Interlanguage link multi|diplôme d'études supérieures|fr}}'', roughly equivalent to an M.A. thesis) titled ''Problème de Dieu chez Lachelier et Lagneau'' (''The Problem of God in Lachelier and Lagneau''),<ref name="FL 417"/><ref name="Schrift p. 172">Alan D. Schrift (2006), ''Twentieth-Century French Philosophy: Key Themes And Thinkers'', Blackwell Publishing, p. 172.</ref> concerning some of the theological views of French philosophers Jules Lachelier (1832–1918) and Jules Lagneau (1851–1894). In 1935, Paul was awarded the second-highest agrégation mark in the nation for philosophy, presaging a bright future.

On 14 August 1935, in Rennes, Paul married Simone Lejas (23 October 1911 – 7 January 1998),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://huguenots-france.org/france/celebrites/ricoeur/pag0.htm#46|title=Pages de données|website=huguenots-france.org|access-date=24 April 2017|archive-date=24 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424180701/https://huguenots-france.org/france/celebrites/ricoeur/pag0.htm#46|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[http://www.reveil-fm.com/index.php/reveil-fm.com2013/03/28/3366-paul-ricoeur-un-philosophe-protestant "Paul Ricoeur, un philosophe protestant"].</ref> with whom he had five children: Jean-Paul (born 15 January 1937), Marc (born 22 February 1938), Noëlle (born 30 November 1940), Olivier (10 July 1947 – 22 March 1986), and Étienne (born 1953).<ref>Charles E. Reagan, ''Paul Ricoeur: His Life and His Work'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pages 6, 8, 15, and 20.</ref><ref name="Enc"/> In 1936–37, he fulfilled his military service.<ref name="FL 417"/>

[[Social:World War II|World War II]] interrupted Ricœur's career, and he was drafted to serve in the French army in 1939. His unit was captured during the German invasion of France in 1940 and he spent the next five years as a prisoner of war in Oflag II-D.<ref name="FL 417"/> His detention camp was filled with other intellectuals such as Mikel Dufrenne, who organized readings and classes sufficiently rigorous that the camp was accredited as a degree-granting institution by the Vichy government. During that time he read [[Biography:Karl Jaspers|Karl Jaspers]], who was to have a great influence on him. He also began a translation of [[Biography:Edmund Husserl|Edmund Husserl]]'s ''Ideas I''.

===1946–2005: Strasbourg University to death===
Ricœur taught at the University of Strasbourg between 1948 and 1956, the only French university with a Protestant faculty of [[Religion:Theology|theology]]. In 1950, he received his State doctorate, submitting (as is customary in France) two theses: a "minor" thesis translating Husserl's ''Ideas I'' into French for the first time, with commentary, and a "major" thesis that he published the same year as ''Philosophie de la Volonté I: Le Volontaire et l'Involontaire'' (''Philosophy of the Will I: The Voluntary and the Involuntary'').<ref>A second volume under the title ''Philosophie de la Volonté II: L'homme faillible et La symbolique du mal'' (''Philosophy of the Will II: Fallible Man and The Symbolism of Evil'') appeared in 1960.</ref> Ricœur soon acquired a reputation as an expert on phenomenology, then the ascendent philosophy in France.

In 1956, Ricœur took up a position at the [[Organization:University of Paris|Sorbonne]] as the Chair of General Philosophy. This appointment signaled Ricœur's emergence as one of France's most prominent philosophers. While at the Sorbonne, he wrote three works that cemented his reputation: ''Fallible Man'' and ''The Symbolism of Evil'' published in 1960, and ''Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation'' published in 1965. [[Biography:Jacques Derrida|Jacques Derrida]] was an assistant to Ricœur during that time (early 1960s).<ref>[[Biography:Geoffrey Bennington|Geoffrey Bennington]] (1991), ''Jacques Derrida'', University of Chicago Press, p. 330.</ref>

From 1965 to 1970, Ricœur was an administrator at the newly founded University of Nanterre in suburban Paris.<ref>During that time, Ricœur was [[Biography:Cornelius Castoriadis|Cornelius Castoriadis]]' long-distance doctoral advisor (Dosse 2014, p. 264).</ref> Nanterre was intended as an experiment in [[Social:Progressive education|progressive education]], and Ricœur hoped that he could create a university in accordance with his vision, free of the stifling atmosphere of the tradition-bound Sorbonne and its overcrowded classes. Nevertheless, Nanterre became a hotbed of protest during the student uprisings of May 1968 in France. Ricœur was derided as an "old clown" (''vieux clown'') and tool of the French government.<ref>Reagan 1996, p. 69.</ref>

Disenchanted with French academic life, Ricœur taught briefly at the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium, before taking a position at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago,<ref>Dosse 1997, p. 529.</ref> where he taught from 1970 to 1985. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1971.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter R| url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterR.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences| access-date=19 April 2011}}</ref> His study culminated in ''The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language'' published in 1975 and the three-volume ''Time and Narrative'' published in 1983, 1984, 1985 Ricœur gave the Gifford Lectures in 1985/86, published in 1990 as ''Oneself as Another''. This work built on his discussion of narrative identity and his continuing interest in the self.

''Time and Narrative'' secured Ricœur's return to France in 1985 as a notable intellectual. His late work was characterised by a continuing cross-cutting of national intellectual traditions; for example, some of his latest writing engaged the thought of the American political philosopher [[Biography:John Rawls|John Rawls]]. In 1995 he received an honorary doctorate from the [[Organization:National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy|National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy]].

In 1999, he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Philosophy, the citation being "[f]or his capacity in bringing together all the most important themes and indications of 20th-century philosophy, and re-elaborating them into an original synthesis which turns language – in particular, that which is poetic and metaphoric – into a chosen place revealing a reality that we cannot manipulate, but interpret in diverse ways, and yet all coherent. Through the use of metaphor, language draws upon that truth which makes of us that what we are, deep in the profundity of our own essence".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.balzan.org/en/prizewinners/paul-ricoeur|title=Paul Ricoeur – Balzan Prize Philosophy|website=www.balzan.org}}</ref> That same year, he and his co-author André LaCocque (professor emeritus of Hebrew Bible at Chicago Theological Seminary) were awarded the Gordon J. Laing Award by the University of Chicago's Board of University Publications for their book ''Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies''.

On 29 November 2004, he was awarded with the second John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Human Sciences (shared with Jaroslav Pelikan).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-04-200/|title=Library of Congress Announces Winners of John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities and Social Sciences|newspaper=The Library of Congress|access-date=2017-02-15|language=en}}</ref>

Ricœur died on 20 May 2005, aged 92, at his home in Châtenay-Malabry, France, of natural causes.<ref name="uchicago_pressrelease">{{Cite web |title=University of Chicago News |url=https://news.uchicago.edu/ |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=news.uchicago.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Rée |first= Jonathan |date= 23 May 2005 |title= Obituary: Paul Ricoeur |url= https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/may/23/guardianobituaries.religion |work= The Guardian |access-date= 21 May 2020}}</ref> French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin declared that "the humanist European tradition is in mourning for one of its most talented exponents". Paul Ricœur was buried in the Châtenay-Malabry New Cemetery, Châtenay-Malabry, Department des Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France.

==Thought==

===Hermeneutic phenomenology<!--'School of suspicion' and 'Masters of suspicion' redirect here-->===
One of Ricœur's major contributions to the field of hermeneutics was the entwining of hermeneutical processes with phenomenology. In this union, Ricœur applies the hermeneutical task to more than just textual analysis, but also to how each self relates to anything that is outside of the self. For Ricœur, hermeneutics is understanding the link between the self and the symbol—neither things in themselves, but the dialectical engagement between the two. Moreover, Ricœur, on the goal of hermeneutics, puts emphasis upon self-understanding as the outcome of the hermeneutical process: <blockquote>"In proposing to relate symbolic language to self-understanding, I think I fulfill the deepest wish of hermeneutics. The purpose of all interpretation is to conquer a remoteness, a distance between the past cultural epoch to which the text belongs and the interpreter himself. By overcoming this distance, by making himself contemporary with the text, the exegete can appropriate its meaning to himself: foreign, he makes it familiar, that is, he makes it his own. It is thus the growth of his own understanding of himself that he pursues through his understanding of others. Every hermeneutics is thus, explicitly or implicitly, self-understanding by means of understanding others."<ref name="PPR">Ricœur, Paul, Charles E. Reagan, and David Stewart. "Existence and Hermeneutics." In ''The Philosophy of Paul Ricœur: An Anthology of His Work''. Boston: Beacon Press, 1978, pp. 101 and 106.</ref></blockquote>Ricoeur maintains that the hermeneutical task is a coming together of the self and an other, in a meaningful way. This explication of self-meaning and other-meaning is principally bound up and manifested in existence itself. Thus, Ricoeur depicts philosophy as a hermeneutical activity seeking to uncover the meaning of existence through the interpretation of phenomena (which can only emerge as) embedded in the world of culture: <blockquote>"This is why philosophy remains a hermeneutics, that is, a reading of the hidden meaning inside the text of the apparent meaning. It is the task of this hermeneutics to show that existence arrives at expression, at meaning, and at reflection only through the continual exegesis of all the significations that come to light in the world of culture. Existence becomes a self – human and adult – only by appropriating this meaning, which first resides "outside," in works, institutions, and cultural movements in which the life of the spirit is justified."<ref name="PPR" /></blockquote>Furthermore, the process of hermeneutics, and extracting meaning, is a reflective task. The emphasis is not on the external meaning, but the meaning or insight of the self which is gained through encountering the external text—or other. The self-knowledge gained through the hermeneutical process is, thus, indirectly attained. This is in opposition to the Cartesian cogito, "which grasps itself directly in the experience of doubt," and is "a truth as vain as it is invincible."<ref name="PPR" /> In point of fact, the difference Ricœur aims to distinguish is the means by which the self is discovered, which for him is only by means of interpreting the signified.

According to Ricœur, the aim of hermeneutics is to recover and to restore the meaning. The French philosopher chooses the model of the phenomenology of religion, in relation to psychoanalysis, stressing that it is characterized by a concern on the object. This object is the sacred, which is seen in relation to the profane.<ref>Eliade, Mircea (1987), ''The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion'', translated by Willard R. Trask. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.</ref>

Ricœur's hermeneutical work ''Freud and Philosophy'' contains the famous assertion that [[Biography:Karl Marx|Karl Marx]], [[Biography:Friedrich Nietzsche|Friedrich Nietzsche]] and [[Biography:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]] are masters of the school of suspicion<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--><ref name="Ricœur65p32">Paul Ricœur (1965), ''Freud and philosophy: an essay on interpretation'', Book I ''Problematic, section 2: ''The conflict of interpretations'', title: ''Interpretation as exercise of suspicion'', p. 32</ref><ref name="Waite96">Waite, Geoff (1996). [https://books.google.com/books?id=otlcb3jYifkC ''Nietzsche's Corpse''], Duke University Press, 1996, p. 106.</ref> (''maîtres du soupçon''/''école du soupçon''). Marx is reductionist, because he reduces society to economy, particularly to means of production; Nietzsche is a reductionist, because he reduces man to the 'will-to-power' and an arbitrary concept of [[Übermensch|superman]]; Freud is a reductionist because he reduces human nature to sexual instinct.<ref>Iţu, Mircia (2002), ''Introducere în hermeneutică'' (''Introduction to Hermeneutics''), Brașov: Orientul latin, p. 63.</ref> Ricœur's theory has been particularly influential to [[Philosophy:Postcritique|postcritique]], a scholarly movement in [[Philosophy:Literary criticism|literary criticism]] and [[Social:Cultural studies|cultural studies]] that seeks for new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of [[Philosophy:Critique|critique]], [[Philosophy:Critical theory|critical theory]], and [[Philosophy:Ideological criticism|ideological criticism]]. The literary critic Rita Felski, for instance, argues that he is a crucial figure in the history of this tradition.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Limits of Critique|last=Felski|first=Rita|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|year=2015|location=Chicago|pages=6}}</ref> She claims that his influential analysis of the "[[Philosophy:Hermeneutics of suspicion|hermeneutics of suspicion]]" "invites us to think about how we read and to what end."<ref name=":0" />

===Philosophy of language===
In ''The Rule of Metaphor''<ref>Ricœur, P., ''The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language'', trans. Robert Czerny with Kathleen McLaughlin and John Costello, S. J., London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1986[1975], p. 4.</ref> and in ''Time and Narrative'', vol. 1,<ref>Ricœur, P., 1984[1983], ''Time and Narrative'', vol. 1, McLaughlin, K. and Pellauer, D. (trans.), University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, p. 109.</ref> Ricœur argues that there exists a linguistic productive imagination<ref>This concept is based on [[Biography:Immanuel Kant|Immanuel Kant]]'s distinction between productive imagination which explains the possibility of cognition of ''a priori'', and the reproductive imagination which explains the synthesis of empirical laws (''[[Philosophy:Critique of Pure Reason|KrV]]'' B152); see Ricoeur 1986[1975], p. 223 and Kaplan 2008, p. 175.</ref> that generates/regenerates meaning through the power of metaphoricity by way of stating things in novel ways and, as a consequence, he sees language as containing within itself resources that allow it to be used creatively.<ref>[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]: [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ricoeur/ "Paul Ricoeur"] by Bernard Dauenhauer</ref>

==Works==
* {{Citation | language = fr | trans-title = Gabriel Marcel & Karl Jaspers: Philosophy of mystery & Philosophy of paradox | title = Gabriel Marcel et Karl Jaspers. Philosophie du mystère et philosophie du paradoxe | place = Paris, Temps Présent | year = 1947}}.
* {{Citation | title = History and Truth | others = trans. Charles A. Kelbley. Evanston | publisher = Northwestern University Press | year = 1965 | orig-year = 1955}}.
* ''Freedom and Nature: The Voluntary and the Involuntary'', trans. Erazim Kohak. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1966 (1950).
* ''Husserl: An Analysis of His Phenomenology''. Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1967
* ''The Symbolism of Evil'', trans. Emerson Buchanan. New York: Harper and Row, 1967 (1960).
* ''Entretiens sur l'Art et la Psychanalyse (sous la direction de Andre Berge, Anne Clancier, Paul Ricoeur et Lothair Rubinstein'', Paris, La Haye: Mouton, 1968 (1964).
* ''Le Conflit des interprétations. Essais d'herméneutique I'', Le Seuil, 1969.
* ''Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation'', trans. Denis Savage. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970 (1965).
* ''The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics'', ed. Don Ihde, trans. Willis Domingo ''et al.'' Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1974 (1969).
* ''Political and Social Essays'', ed. David Stewart and Joseph Bien, trans. Donald Stewart ''et al.'' Athens: Ohio University Press, 1974.
* ''The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language'', trans. Robert Czerny with Kathleen McLaughlin and John Costello, S. J., London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1978 (1975).
* ''Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning''. Fort Worth: Texas Christian Press, 1976.
* ''The Philosophy of Paul Ricœur: An Anthology of his Work'', ed. Charles E. Reagan and David Stewart. Boston: Beacon Press, 1978.
* ''Essays on Biblical Interpretation'' (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980)
* ''Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation'', ed., trans. John B. Thompson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
* ''Time and Narrative'' (''Temps et Récit''), 3 vols. trans. Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984, 1985, 1988 (1983, 1984, 1985).
* ''Lectures on Ideology and Utopia'', ed., trans. George H. Taylor. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
* ''Du texte à l'action. Essais d'herméneutique II'', Le Seuil, 1986.
* ''From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics II'', trans. Kathleen Blamey and John B. Thompson. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1991 (1986).
* ''À l'école de la phenomenologie''. Paris: J. Vrin, 1986.
* ''Le mal: Un défi à la philosophie et à la théologie''. Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1986.
* ''Fallible Man'', trans. Charles A. Kelbley, with an introduction by Walter J. Lowe, New York: Fordham University Press, 1986 (1960).
* ''A Ricœur Reader: Reflection and Imagination'', ed. Mario J. Valdes. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.
* ''Lectures I: Autour du politique.'' Paris: Seuil, 1991.
* ''Lectures II: La Contrée des philosophes.'' Paris: Seuil, 1992.
* ''Oneself as Another'' (''Soi-même comme un autre''), trans. Kathleen Blamey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992 (1990).
* ''Lectures III: Aux frontières de la philosophie.'' Paris: Seuil, 1994.
* ''Réflexion faite. Autobiographie intellectuelle.'' Esprit, 1995.
* ''The Philosophy of Paul Ricœur'', ed. Lewis E. Hahn (The Library of Living Philosophers 22) (Chicago; La Salle: Open Court, 1995).
* ''The Just'', trans. David Pellauer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000 (1995).
* ''Critique and Conviction'', trans. Kathleen Blamey. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998 (1995).
* ''Thinking Biblically'', (with André LaCocque). University of Chicago Press, 1998.
* ''La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli''. Paris: Seuil, 2000.
* ''Le Juste II''. Paris: Esprit, 2001.
* ''Memory, History, Forgetting'', trans. by Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer. University of Chicago Press, 2004.
* ''The Course of Recognition'', trans. David Pellauer. Harvard University Press, 2005.
* ''Reflections on the Just'', trans. David Pellauer. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
* ''Living Up to Death'', trans. David Pellauer. University of Chicago Press, 2009.

==See also==
* [[Philosophy:Metaphor in philosophy|Metaphor in philosophy]]
* [[Philosophy:Postmodern theology|Postmodern theology]]
* [[Philosophy:Theopoetics|Theopoetics]]
* ''Esprit''

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* [[Biography:François Dosse|François Dosse]] (1997). ''Paul Ricœur. Les Sens d'une Vie''. Paris: La Découverte.
* {{Citation | first = François | last = Dosse | title = Castoriadis. Une vie | author-mask = 3 | language = fr | trans-title = Castoriadis, a life | place = Paris | publisher = La Découverte | year = 2014}}.
* David M. Kaplan (2003). ''Ricœur's Critical Theory''. Albany, SUNY Press.
* {{Citation | editor-first = David M | editor-last = Kaplan | year = 2008 | title = Reading Ricoeur | editor-mask = 3 | place = Albany | publisher = SUNY Press}}.
* Charles E. Reagan (1996). ''Paul Ricœur: His Life and Work''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
* John Cesar "Sasing" Caalem-Nguyen'Her Life in Encantadia'. Tagum: University of Blood Washed Band

==Further reading==
'''Books'''
* Don Ihde, 1971. ''Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Philosophy of Paul Ricœur''. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
* David E. Klemm, 1983. ''The Hermeneutical Theory of Paul Ricoeur: A Constructive Analysis''. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press.
* [[Biography:Pamela Sue Anderson|Pamela Sue Anderson]], 1993. ''Ricœur and Kant: philosophy of the will''. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
* Bernard P. Dauenhauer, 1998. ''Paul Ricœur: The Promise and Risk of Politics''. Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield.
* [[Biography:Richard Kearney|Richard Kearney]], ed., 1996. ''Paul Ricoeur: The Hermeneutics of Action''. SAGE.
* [[Biography:Kuruvilla Pandikattu|Kuruvilla Pandikattu]], 2000. ''[[Philosophy:Idols to Die|Idols to Die]], Symbols to Live: Dynamic Interaction between Language, Reality, and the Divine''. New Delhi: Intercultural Publications.
* Henry Isaac Venema, 2000. ''Identifying Selfhood: Imagination, Narrative, and Hermeneutics in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur'' (Mcgill Studies in the History of Religions), SUNY Press.
* Dan Stiver, 2001. ''Theology after Ricœur'', Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
* Karl Simms, 2002. ''Paul Ricœur'', Routledge Critical Thinkers. New York: Routledge.
* Gregory J. Laughery, 2002. ''Living Hermeneutics in Motion: An Analysis and Evaluation of Paul Ricoeur's Contribution to Biblical Hermeneutics''. Lanham: University Press of America.
* [[Biography:Richard Kearney|Richard Kearney]], 2004. ''On Paul Ricœur: The Owl of Minerva''. Hants, England: Ashgate.
* John Wall, 2005 "Moral Creativity: Paul Ricoeur and the Poetics of Possibility". New York: Oxford University Press.
* Salvioli, Marco, 2006, "Il Tempo e le Parole. Ricoeur e Derrida a "margine" della fenomenologia", ESD, Bologna.
* W. David Hall, 2007. ''Paul Ricoeur and the Poetic Imperative''. Albany: SUNY Press.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, 2008. ''Paul Ricœur. De l'homme faillible à l'homme capable''. Paris : Presses Universitaires de France.
* Alison Scott-Baumann, 2009. ''Ricoeur and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion''. Continuum.
* [[Biography:Fredric Jameson|Fredric Jameson]], 2009. "The Valences of History." In ''Valences of the Dialectic''. London and New York: Verso. 475–612.
* Larisa Cercel (ed.), "[https://web.archive.org/web/20090723001927/http://www.zetabooks.com/zeta-series-in-translation-studies.html ''Übersetzung und Hermeneutik'' / ''Traduction et herméneutique'']" (Zeta Series in Translation Studies 1), Bucharest, Zeta Books 2009, {{ISBN|978-973-199-706-3}} (paperback), 978-973-1997-07-0 (ebook).
* Boyd Blundell, 2010. ''Paul Ricoeur between Theology and Philosophy: Detour and Return''. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
* Haggag Ali, 2011. Paul Ricoeur and the Challenge of Semiology. Saarbrücken:VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.
* [[Biography:William C. Dowling|William C. Dowling]], 2011. ''Ricoeur on Time and Narrative: an Introduction to Temps et Recit''. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press ([http://undpress.nd.edu/book/P01504 online excerpt]).
* Francis J. Mootz III and George H. Taylor (eds.), 2011. ''Gadamer and Ricoeur: Critical Horizons for Contemporary Hermeneutic''. Continuum.
* Kuruvilla Pandikattu, 2013. ''Between Before and Beyond: An Exploration of the Human Condition Inspired by Paul Ricoeur''. Pune: CreatiVentures.
*Fr Phillip J. Linden Jr., SSJ, 2019. ''Slavery, Religion and Regime: The Political Theory of Paul Ricoeur as a Conceptual Framework for a Critical Theological Interpretation of the Modern State''. United States: Xlibris.

'''Articles'''
* Ruthellen Josselson, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160206142102/http://ruthellenjosselson.com/articles/josselson.ni.14-1.1e.pdf "The hermeneutics of faith and the hermeneutics of suspicion"], ''Narrative Inquiry'', '''14'''(1), 1–28.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, ''Paul Ricoeur, lecteur d'Aristote'', in Éthique à Nicomaque VIII-IX, ed. Guy Samama, Paris: Ellipses, 185–189, 2001.
* George H. Taylor, [https://ssrn.com/abstract=1352664 "Ricoeur's Philosophy of Imagination"], ''Journal of French Philosophy'', vol. 16, p.&nbsp;93, 2006.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, ''Paul Ricœur et le pardon comme au-delà de l'action'', Laval théologique et philosophique 63/2 363–376, 2007.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, ''The Golden Rule and Forgiveness. In A Passion for the Possible. Thinking with Paul Ricœur'', ed. Brian Treanor and Henry Venema, Series: Perspectives in Continental Philosophy, New York: Fordham University Press, 77–89, 2010.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, ''Ricœur's Medical Ethics: the Encounter between the Physician and the Patient'', in Reconceiving Medical Ethics, ed. by C. Cowley, New York: Continuum Press, 30–42, 2012.
* Rita Felski, [http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/431 "Critique and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion"], ''M/C Journal'', vol. 15, No. 1, 2012.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, ''Ricœur's Hermeneutics of the Self. On the In-Between of the Involuntary and the Voluntary, and Narrative Identity'', Philosophy Today, 58, 39–51, 2014.

==External links==
* [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]: [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ricoeur/ "Paul Ricoeur"] by Bernard Dauenhauer
* [[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]: [http://www.iep.utm.edu/r/ricoeur.htm "Paul Ricoeur"] by Kim Atkins
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMEFAAEm0IE Ricoeur's Hermeneutics] (introductory lecture by Henk de Berg, 2015)
* [http://www.fondsricoeur.fr/fr/pages/bibliographie.html List of principal works by Ricœur] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516022156/http://www.fondsricoeur.fr/fr/pages/bibliographie.html |date=16 May 2021 }}
* [http://ricoeur.pitt.edu Études Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies]
* [http://www.ricoeursociety.org The Society for Ricoeur Studies]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060613201339/http://www.theology.ie/thinkers/ricoeur.htm Irish Theological Association]
* [http://philpapers.org/rec/CHAROP-4 Subhasis Chattopadhyay, Review of ''Evil: A Challenge to Philosophy and Theology'' by Paul Ricœur, ''Prabuddha Bharata'', '''121'''(6) (June 2016): 529–30]
* [http://espacethique.free.fr/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=128 "Ricœur et Lévinas"] by Henri Duthu
* [http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/mwt/dictionary/mwt_themes_790_ricoeur.htm Paul Ricoeur: A Hermeneutical Theologian] in ''The Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Western Theology''

{{continental philosophy}}
{{Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy - Thought and Ethics}}


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[[Category:Philosophers of mind]]
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{{Sourceattribution|Paul Ricœur}}