Paul Ricoeur (Ricoeur Paul)

(p. 1913)
The place it occupies in French philosophy, comparable to the place occupied by H.-G.Gadamerom in the German philosophical community.
Paul Ricoeur was born on February 27, 1913 in Valencia (Spain). Educated at the Sorbonne, in the five years he taught philosophy at the Lyceum. At the beginning of World War II, he became a soldier of the French army, was captured, where he began work on the translation of Husserl's Ideas (Ideas I have been published in French in 1950, with commentaries Ricker). Since the end of the war until 1948 Ricoeur taught at Strasbourg, in 1956 received the invitation in the Sorbonne. In 1961, after the death M.Merlo-Ponty, Ricoeur switched to manual 'Archives Husserl'. For many years he, together with E. Mounier levokatolichesky edited the magazine 'Esprit'. Political and religious convictions Ricker led him in 1966 in the University of Paris-Nanterre. In 1969-1970 the philosopher, who served as dean, was 'between two fires' - the Maoists, on the one hand, and the bureaucracy - the other. Political disappointment and stiff opposition from gaining force structuralism led Ricoeur to accept an invitation to the University of Chicago, where he worked from 1970 to 1992.

Topics addressed by Ricoeur, relate to each other: Will - Evil - Symbol - Metaphor - Narrative - Otherness - Memory. The first volume of the book voluntary and involuntary (Le volontaire et l'involontaire, 1950) was a practical application of theoretical precepts M.Merlo-Ponty described in the Phenomenology of perception. The study covers the phenomena of conscious strong-willed decision to involuntary forces of life and the unchanging elements of nature and instincts. Here, as in later works, Ricoeur draws on a variety of sources. Style phenomenological description, he borrows from the 'eidetic phenomenology' of Husserl, in the dynamics of such a statement should be creators, as F. Maine de Biran and J. Naber. Main intuitions Ricoeur obliged religious existential philosophy Gabriel Marcel and Karl Jaspers. After completion of the first volume of the will of the major themes of his reflections are phenomena of sinfulness and guilt. In 1960 was published two-volume work Finiteness and guilt (Finitude et culpabilit). While working on the second volume - Symbols of evil - there was a turn to the hermeneutics of Ricoeur: because evil can be conceived only in symbols and myths, it makes us look for roundabout ways to interpret. So there are a number of hermeneutic works Ricoeur, brought him worldwide fame.

The first works of this kind was a great book on Freud - On Interpretation (De l'interprtation, 1965). Ricoeur understands psychoanalysis as a kind of 'archeology' of the subject. 'Antifenomenologicheskaya' installation of psychoanalysis, is not aimed at a reduction to consciousness, but on the reduction of consciousness, allows this research strategy to penetrate the hidden world of drives, inaccessible to reflection. However, the 'archeology' of the subject Ricoeur ultimately opposes 'teleology' of the subject - the return of the unconscious into the mainstream awareness. Rikerovskaya 'semantics of desire' met with sharp resistance from the J. Lacan and his followers. Controversy with structuralism led Ricoeur to new ideas outlined in the book The conflict of interpretations (Le conflit des interprtations, 1969), which provides an interpretation F.de Saussure's linguistics and anthropology, and mythology K.Levi-Strauss. The intensity of the controversy was winding down in the works, written mostly in the U.S., in which Ricoeur refers to the analytical philosophy of language. The study Alive metaphor (La mtaphore vive, . 1975) the author's attention is focused on the poetic power of metaphor, . concluded in its ability not only to give the beauty of the familiar object, . but also discover new connections and relations with 'vision as ...',
. In this essay should be three-volume work Time and narrative (Temps et rcit, 1983-1985), in which Ricoeur examines various theories of time (Aristotle and Augustine, Husserl and Heidegger). The path leads from the study of historical and literary narrative (for illustrations by the author turns to the great novels of the time of such writers as Thomas Mann, M. Proust, V. Woolf) to the 'narrative time'

. In the last of his great works - I like the other (Soi-mme comme un autre, . 1990) Ricoeur develops the hermeneutics of human I, . in which the Cartesian searching for reliable performance contrasted with the practical and ethical evidence, . and 'otherness' I is revealed as 'otherness' of the body, . another and conscience,
. The ensuing ethics focuses on the balance of justice, as opposed to the 'ethics of another' E. Levinas, originating from the asymmetry of self and other

. Peculiar frame body works Ricoeur favor of his work on the political and historical themes (History and Truth - Histoire et vrit, . 1955), . as well as research on the phenomenology (Phenomenological School - A l'ecole de la phnomnologie, . 1986), . theory of activity (From text to action - Du texte l'action, . 1986), . theory of law (on equity - Au juste, . 1995) and, . Finally, . presentations on topical issues of our time (Lectures, . I-III - Lectures, . 1991-1994).,