Ricœur, Paul

(1913- )

   philosopher

   Born in Valence, Paul Ricœur was influenced by the existentialism of Karl Jaspers and the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, whom he helped to make well known in France (À l'École de la phénoménologie, 1986, a collection of articles). Ricœur analyzed psychological, ethical, and metaphysical problems of free will in Philosophie de la volonté (1950-61) and, as a Christian thinker, tried to elucidate the meaning of prebiblical and biblical myths, questioning the fundamental writings of the great religions (Lectures III, Aux frontières de la philosophie, 1993). He sought, too, to develop an interpretive, or hermeneutic, philosophy, supported by psychoanalysis (De l'interprétation: essai sur Freud, 1965; Le Conflit des interprétations: essai d'hermeneutique, 1969; La Métaphore vive, 1975; Soi-même comme un autre, 1990). His work also has an important place in political ethics (Lectures I, Autour de la politique, 1991), and he undertook an interpretation of history (Histoire et Vérité, 1955) and of fiction and mystery, with history as a story (Temps et Récit, three volumes, 1963-85). upholding the philosophic tradition, Ricœur is a contemporary author who has pondered the relationship among the state and reason, political experience and human rights, and totalitarian evil. The question of values permeates all his writings on ethics, as does the hope for the improvement of the human condition.