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Lecturer(s)
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Vendra Maria Cristina Clorinda, Mgr. PhD.
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Course content
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Part 1 (Week 1 - Week 3) - The Nature of the will. Homo Volens 1. Introduction to Paul Ricoeur's life and work 2. Phenomenology of the will (Freedom and Nature. The Voluntary and the Involuntary) 3. Human fallibility and the possibility of evil (Fallible Man, The Symbolism of Evil) Part 2 (Week 4 - Week 6) - The Model of the Text. Homo Interpretans 4. Existence and hermeneutics (The Conflict of Interpretations) 5. Hermeneutical phenomenology (From Text to Action) 6. Hermeneutics of texts and hermeneutics of actions (From Text to Action) Part 3 (Week 8 - 11) - Identity: Sameness and Selfhood. Homo Narrans 7. Threefold mimesis: prefiguration, configuration, refiguration (Time and Narrative. Volume 1) 8. Narrative identity (Time and Narrative. Volume 3, Oneself as Another) Part 4 (Week 10 - Week 14) - The Ideal of the Good Life. Homo Imputans 10. The ethical aim: self-esteem and self-respect (Oneself as Another) 11. Solictude and the moral norm (Oneself as Another) 12. Political institutions (Oneself as Another) 13. Practical wisdom (Oneself as Another) 14. Recapitulation and conclusions: Hoping, thinking, doing
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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unspecified, unspecified, unspecified, unspecified, unspecified
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Learning outcomes
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This course will offer an introduction to Ricoeur's philosophy with reference to what we can consider, schematically speaking, as the four phases of his philosophical journey: (1) his early phenomenology, (2) his hermeneutics of text and action, (3) his narrative hermeneutics, and (4) his mature ethical thought. These stages are intertwined and have to be seen as composing a complex unity animated by many detours and returns. More precisely, the course will be focused on the key topics corresponding to these four moments: the nature of the will, the model of the text, identity as sameness and as selfhood, the ideal of the good life. Human being will be understood as a willing being, as an interpretive being, as a being able to narrate and as capable of imputation. In order to discuss these issues, the course will present selected texts and passages of Ricoeur's massive bibliography. The course will be divided into four parts. (1) The first part will be dedicated to the eidetic stage of Ricoeur's work, that is, to his early phenomenology of the will. It will present his phenomenological study of the voluntary and involuntary aspects of willing as revealing the fragile nature of human being. As a willing being, human being is internally fractured. (2) The second part will discuss Ricoeur's hermeneutical turn. By following Ricoeur's line of thought, it will move from the field of text to the field of action as a context in which the hermeneutical model of the text can be coherently applied. In this hermeneutical framework, human being is understood as an interpretive being, namely as a being capable to interpret the meaning of texts and actions. (3) The third part will consider Ricoeur's hermeneutical theory of narrative. In doing so, the course will analyze the notion of narrative identity as intermediary between sameness and selfhood. Human being will be here seen as capable to narrate or to tell stories disclosing his or her life possibilities. (4) The fourth part will concern Ricoeur's ethical thought. It will highlight the distinction proposed by Ricoeur between ethics as a teleological perspective and morality as a deontological perspective. Ethics and morality complement each other dialectically. The course will sketch out the core concepts of Ricoeur's ethics: self-esteem, solicitude, respect, practical wisdom and political institutions. Human being will be considered as a subject capable of assuming responsibility as long as able to designate himself or herself as author of his or her actions.
Communication, dialogical skills, ability to read and discuss in English, adaptability to different methodologies and perspectives
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Prerequisites
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None
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Assessment methods and criteria
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unspecified
Evaluations of students in this course will be based on: (1) participation, which includes active discussionin class, attendance (80%), class assignments. In case of absence, the student gas to communicate it and to ask the professor for any assignments or key discussions concerning the missed lesson. (2) An in-class presentation (15 minutes) and a final paper (max. 8 pages). Additional information will be provided at the beginning of the course. Bibliography Mandatory --- Selected pages, chapters, of the following books: 1) Paul Ricoeur, Freedom and Nature. The Voluntary and the Involuntary [1950], translated by Erazim Kohák (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1966). [General Introduction: Question of Method] 2) Paul Ricoeur, Fallible Man [1960], translated by Charles Kelbley (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1965). [The Concept of Fallibility; Limitation and Fallibility; Fallibility and the Possibility of Fault] 3) Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil [1960], translated by Everson Buchanan (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967). [The Symbol Gives Rise to Thought] 4) Paul Ricoeur, The Conflict of Interpretations. Essays in Hermeneutics [1969], translated by Don Ihde, (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1974). [Existence and Hermeneutics] 5) Paul Ricoeur, From Text to Action. Essays in Hermeneutics II [1986], translated by Kathleen Blamey and John Thompson (London: The Athlone Press, 1991). [For a Hermeneutical Phenomenology; From the Hermeneutics of Texts to the Hermeneutics of Action] 6) Paul Ricoeur, Time and Narrative Vol. I., translated by Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984). [Time and Narrative: Threefold Mimesis] 7) Paul Ricoeur, Oneself as Another [1990], translated by Kathleen Blamey (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). [Fifth Study; Sixth Study; Seventh Study; Eight Study; Ninth Study] 8) David Pellauer, Ricoeur: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Continuum, 2007). 9) Charles Reagan, Paul Ric?ur: His Life and His Work (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). Recommended 1) Roger Savage, Paul Ricoeur's Philosophical Anthropology as Hermeneutics of Liberation: Freedom, Justice, and the Power of Imagination (New York: Routledge, 2021). 2) Geoffrey Dierckxsens, Paul Ric?ur's Moral Anthropology: Singularity, Responsibility, and Justice (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2018). 3) Brian Treanor, Henry Isaac Venema, A Passion for the Possible: Thinking with Paul Ric?ur (New York: Fordham University Press, 2010). 4) Timo Helenius, Ricoeur, Culture, and Recognition: A Hermeneutic of Cultural Subjectivity (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2016).
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Recommended literature
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David Pellauer. Ricoeur: A Guide for the Perplexed. 2007.
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Charles Reagan. Paul Ricoeur: His Life and His Work. .
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Paul Ricoeur. Fallible Man. 1965.
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Paul Ricoeur. Freedom and Nature. The Voluntary and the Involuntary. 1960.
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Paul Ricoeur. Oneself as Another. 1990.
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Ricoeur, Paul. From Text to Action, Essays in Hermeneutics II. Continuum, 1991.
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